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The Briefing

Dasha on Dolly Parton, a billion streams & prison fans

08 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: How did Dasha achieve over a billion streams on Spotify?

2.647 - 28.587 Helen Smith

listener production hey it's helen smith here welcome to the weekend briefing where we chat with the humans behind the headlines imagine writing a song in a couple of hours on a day you weren't even supposed to be in the studio and it ends up with over a billion streams on spotify making you the second solo female country artist in history to hit that milestone the first being taylor swift

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28.567 - 43.2 Helen Smith

Well, that's the story of Dasha, the country artist who freestyled the now iconic line, Did Your Boots Stop Working, that changed her career trajectory completely and found herself having fans from Australia to Europe and even in prison.

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43.7 - 58.573 Helen Smith

Dasha is rewriting what it means to be a woman in country music, from her grandma calling her out for wearing booty shorts on stage to doing shooies for crowds to taking notes from the great Dolly Parton on how to break every rule with a smile.

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Chapter 2: What inspired Dasha's iconic line 'Did your boots stop working'?

58.553 - 70.795 Helen Smith

In this chat, Dasha opens up about how she felt with the overnight success, what she learned about her gut instinct and trusting yourself, and why she believes the girls are officially taking country back.

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Chapter 3: How does Dasha navigate her overnight success in country music?

71.316 - 80.552 Helen Smith

A little later in the show, we have the weekend list where we recommend what to watch, do, eat, see and listen to. But this week, it's got a special Mother's Day twist.

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Chapter 4: What lessons has Dasha learned about trusting her gut instinct?

80.572 - 82.776 Helen Smith

But first, here's my chat with Dasha.

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88.152 - 88.672 Helen Smith

Dasha.

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Chapter 5: How does Dasha view the representation of women in country music?

88.692 - 94.538 Helen Smith

Hey. Firstly, I want to go back to baby Dasha, a.k.a. baby Anna. Okay.

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94.818 - 101.343 Dasha

What was she like? She was super confident and pretty cool, and she had a lot of crushes on every boy ever.

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Chapter 6: What was the songwriting process behind Dasha's hit song 'Austin'?

101.404 - 118.88 Dasha

Very big imagination, big dreamer, always writing songs and making plays up, making dances up, recruiting friends to act out said plays. Like, any time I could ever get attention... I was like, awesome, let's do that.

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119.1 - 142.091 Helen Smith

So you've really kind of lived out Baby Dash's dreams because now you literally kind of describe exactly what you do. You perform, you sing, you get everyone involved. You get a lot of attention, so much so that you're the second solo female country artist to hit over a billion streams on Spotify with your song Austin. It's insane.

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142.531 - 143.733 Dasha

It's actually so crazy.

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Chapter 7: How has Dasha's music connected with fans globally, including in prison?

143.793 - 167.864 Dasha

Yeah. How did that feel? It felt so surreal when that happened because that's just like such a crazy statistic, especially because the only other one is Taylor Swift. And like, look what she has done and is continuing to do. I just felt like I was almost getting pranked somehow. And I was just like, what the hell is going on? That's all I can really say because it just still blows my mind.

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Chapter 8: What does Dasha believe about the future of women in country music?

167.925 - 169.847 Dasha

Even when hearing you say that, I'm like, what? What?

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169.979 - 176.246 Helen Smith

It's pretty wild statistic. I can't even because Australia's population, that's like a million.

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176.346 - 184.875 Dasha

I can't. I know. My dad broke it down. It was like a million, a hundred thousand millions or a thousand. I can't remember. It's a lot.

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185.115 - 199.75 Helen Smith

It's a lot of millions. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. Speaking of your family, you grew up in a really artistic family. Yeah. Now, I want to talk about your mom, though, who works in radio, but is also an architect by trade. Yeah.

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200.084 - 226.952 Dasha

what does that do does that just make you automatically media trained for interviews or does it put the pressure on a little bit more um no my mom she it's funny because outside of her radio personality she has a lot of opinions about me and of course she's my mom she really cares and wants the best for me it's just funny like after all like put a piece of social media content out there or do some interview and say some like funny answer that I think is funny but maybe like

226.932 - 250.308 Dasha

you know, a little bit out there, I'll get a call from a mom being like, why did you say that? Or my dad would be like, so why do you keep chugging alcohol on your TikTok? I'm like, because it's a shooey. It's funny. Like, whatever. It's funny. But it's been interesting, like, navigating that side of it. Like, my grandma. Oh, my God. My grandma. She disagrees with some of the outfits I wear.

250.809 - 269.967 Dasha

Okay. Which is kind of funny. She's like a very southern lady from North Carolina. So the other day she calls me. She's like, she's like, are you going to wear booty shorts today or be a good girl on stage? And I was like, love you too, girl. Like this is insane. But that doesn't answer any of the questions you just asked me. Artistic families.

270.868 - 283.129 Dasha

The main thing has been like my brother being artistic too. A producer, musician. He's in a rock band called Beauty School Dropout. He produces a lot of my music too. So I think that's been like the coolest thing is us being able to work together through like all this.

283.109 - 291.212 Helen Smith

I know you said that he's probably one of the only people that can be brutally honest with you. Do you think that is why you create such good songs?

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