Hot 100 First-Timers: Dasha Arrives With Breakthrough Viral Hit ‘Austin’
Written by djfrosty on March 18, 2024
One week after her arrival on Billboard’s charts, Dasha becomes a Billboard Hot 100-charting artist, thanks to her breakthrough viral single “Austin.”
The song, released in November via Version III, debuts at No. 74 on the March 23-dated Hot 100 with 6.7 million official streams (up 65%), 84,000 in radio airplay audience (up 173%) and 2,000 downloads sold (up 116%) in the U.S. March 8-14, according to Luminate.
The track also jumps 31-17 on Hot Country Songs, which uses the same multi-metric methodology as the Hot 100.
Trending on Billboard
Dasha is based in Nashville, via San Luis Obispo, Calif. Gains for “Austin” have been sparked by TikTok, where she boasts over 400,000 followers. Seemingly boosted by the rising wave behind Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” – which tops Hot Country Songs for a fifth week – “Austin” soundtracks a line-dance trend started by Dasha. The song has been featured in over 300,000 videos on the platform. Billboard reported that in the tracking week ending Feb. 15, in which Beyoncé released “Texas Hold ‘Em” midway through, “Austin” vaulted from 82,000 official on-demand streams the week before to over 830,000 – up 916%. The next week (ending Feb. 22), the song grew 182% to 2.3 million.
Airplay-wise, SiriusXM is championing the song on TikTok Radio and its country-formatted The Highway. Terrestrially, Country Airplay chart reporter KBAY San Francisco leads in early exposure for the track.
“Austin” is on Dasha’s new eight-track LP What Happens Now?, released Feb. 16. Before that, she released the collection Dirty Blonde in January 2023, via Quadio Records, and her six-track EP $hiny Things in 2021.
Dasha, who co-wrote “Austin,” also surges from No. 29 to No. 11 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart.