When we think of an overnight success, TikTok takeovers and viral dance videos come to mind. Country breakout Dasha has those — her breakup banger “Austin” put everyone’s For You Page in a chokehold just a few months ago — but her chart-topping ascension has a few plot twists you might not expect.
In the latest episode of How I Blew Up, the California native and Nashville transplant maps out her weird and winding journey to the stage. It’s a story that starts with a childhood poetry contest entry before getting sidetracked by a pandemic, a genre switch-up, and a messy ex.
“It’s always been about songwriting for me,” she says, “It’s always been about three chords and the truth.”
Learning guitar at a young age, studying everything from opera to improv, Dasha’s endgame has always been music, but when Covid hit in 2020, she dropped oout of college, ditching the Zoom classes she’d been taking as a songwriting major to get some more real life experience. In LA, she was labeled a pop star, a designation that just didn’t sit right with her lyrical soul. “I felt almost icky,” she recalls of dropping her first album, an alt-pop entry that dropped in early 2023. “This is not me. I’m going back to my roots. I’m going back to country music.”
A genre switch, a cross-country move, and one masterfully-planned social media roll-out later, Dasha is now gracing late night talk shows and performing at music festivals like Austin City Limits. Raw, vulnerable, and fearless in her songwriting, her debut country album, What Happens Now, effortlessly blends her natural talent for penning a killer hooks with playful melodies that merge her two worlds, creating a brand of contemporary country that could convince almost anyone to dust off their boots and attempt her TikTok patented line dance.
Check out the full video above for more of Dasha’s story.