Dasha Makes CMT Music Awards Debut With 'Austin' Performance

Country-pop newcomer Dasha made her CMT Music Awards debut with a brief but electric performance of her viral single “Austin.” The song appeared on her recently released sophomore studio album, which arrived in February.

Dressed in boots, shorts, and a green vest, the one-name-only singer scored a prime performance slot at the bottom of the telecast’s third hour, despite being a relative unknown — and having never been to the titular city of her breakout hit. “Thank you, CMT, for believing in me,” Dasha shouted at the song’s end. “My first time in Austin!”

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The California-born, Nashville-based artist broke through with “Austin” earlier this year. The single has been used in more than 600,000 videos on TikTok — where she boasts over 636,000 followers — many of which feature users replicating the viral line dance that accompanies the song. Dasha was previously a more pop-centric artist and released her debut album Dirty Blonde in 2023.

“I started with country. It was me and a guitar and it was me with my dramatic ass feelings as like a 10-year-old writing songs and I was really inspired by Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert,” Dasha recently told The Zach Sang Show. “Kasey Musgraves was the first person I heard the lyrics of and I was like [gasp] I can see it in my head, you know? I was so inspired by that so at 10, I started writing songs and it was all country — it was all country-pop.