Country 105 welcomes Dasha to Grey Eagle Resort & Casino on Saturday, September 20!
Since childhood, Dasha never doubted if she’d make it in music—only when. But at 22, “when” still had not come. With no breakthrough in sight, the singer went all in. She funneled the last of her savings into self-funding her debut country album, staying afloat as a songwriter-for-hire. For two years, Dasha was forced to instinctively trust her taste as she crafted made-to-order music for love-struck strangers online. After two years, she had written a thousand songs—including her soon-to-be platinum single, “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’).”
“As a songwriter, you are born with an antenna,” the 25-year-old says. “Songs are like a beam. It’s pure emotion that just comes through you and you’re just a vessel for it.”
To dive into Dasha’s catalog is to see that “Austin” —with its vivid storytelling and anthemic hook—is no outlier. At just eight years old, Anna Dasha won a nationwide poetry competition, and by 13, years of live performances at local venues led to her first record deal offer. Her second arrived after she won a songwriting contest at Nashville’s Belmont University, and the third followed a series of viral vignettes on social media. To music insiders, Dasha’s sound and aesthetic signaled the rise of a new pop star, but Dasha instead stayed the country course—her love for the genre first taking root in the rolling hills of her Central California hometown. It was a direction that raised industry eyebrows.
“A lot of people were like, ‘But, you live in LA? What are you doing?’” she remembers. “You can make country music anywhere. I had this deep sense that I needed to go back to my roots. I needed to go back to the reason I love music so much: the storytelling.”
What followed was nothing short of sensational. In 2023, while working on her first full-length country project, What Happens Now?, the world caught wind of “Austin (Boots Stop Working’).” With the help of a Dasha-choreographed line dance, the song became a sensation—taking over TikTok and honky tonks nationwide within months of its release – leading to a major label deal with Version III / Warner Records. From there, the singer landed coveted spots at country music meccas in 2024, Stagecoach, Austin City Limits, CMT Awards, and CMA Fest. Her year didn’t stop there, though. She sold-out her first global headlining tour, Dashville USA, and performed on two of the biggest televised broadcasts of the year – Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” went on to become one of the most-streamed country songs in 2024 and won the People’s Choice Country Awards for Female Song.
“This past year I was blown away by how many little girls were riding the rails at my shows. My music is so digestible for people who are just coming into the genre and falling in love with it for the first time,” Dasha says. “No one connects with perfection. For me, navigating the highs and lows of this industry means accepting that I’m going to make mistakes. This journey isn’t always going to be smooth, and the bumps along the way make for a far more interesting ride.”
Though she’s never positioned herself as a role model, Dasha is especially mindful of her influence on young women. With humor, humility, and effortless charm, she’s committed to presenting her most authentic self, at all times—proving to fans they don’t have to lose themselves to find success. This attitude has also been essential to maintain her mental health as a musician.
Dasha’s upcoming album anchors her narrative arcs with instrumentation: fiddles, banjos, and harmonicas. “Not At This Party,” the first single from her sophomore country project that captures the feeling of missing a lover on a night out, was conceived as a freestyled verse in the studio, and birthed by a catchy banjo melody.
“If it still has that singable hook, then anyone from anywhere around the world that doesn’t even know country music can be like, Oh, that’s a good song.”
Despite her confidence, Dasha admits to moments of self-doubt—especially when it comes to matching the runaway success of her breakout single. The landscape around her has shifted dramatically; she wrote “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” with just a few thousand dollars to her name, but now, backed by a major label, she’s collaborating with some of the industry’s best. Still, Dasha is committed to preserving her DIY spirit—credited as an executive producer on her new album and a creative force behind all her visuals. She may no longer be navigating the journey solo, but Dasha is still in the driver’s seat—and all roads lead back to country. “This is where I’m supposed to be. I love this community…and I think you can tell I’m really excited to be here.”
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