MUSIC
Who is Dasha who sings the viral ‘did your boots stop working’ line dance TikTok hit Austin?
Users have been posting thousands of the choreographed routines to the country music hit from the California-born singer.
Seems like half of TikTok is line dancing right now, thanks to artist Dasha, whose song Austin, along with the accompanying dance moves, is everywhere on social media.
Who is Dasha?
Born Anna Dasha Novotny on February 27, 2000, Dasha hails from San Luis Obispo, California, but she’s made the move west to Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music.
Dasha told CountrySwag.com that the song Austin is one of her favorites, although admits that the original idea was different, explaining that they were writing a song called Play Dumb, which was about pretending not to know someone’s cheating on you, so “you can hold on a little bit longer”, however she says she didn’t relate to that idea, so just started “freestyling over it” and out came the chorus to Austin “exactly how you hear it.”
Austin goes viral on TikTok
Dasha released the song Austin on November 27, 2023, but it only took off when she posted her line dance to the song, which soon became widely imitated across the platform. At the time of writing, Sunday March 24, there were well over 400,000 videos on TikTok featuring the track. Dasha herself now has over half a million followers on TikTok.
The song went from 82,000 streams in the week ending February 8 to 830,000 the week ending February 15, before hitting 2.3 million the week after.
Austin has now broken into the Billboard Hot 100, coming in at 74.
How to do the line dance to Dasha’s Austin
If you want to practice the moves to Austin, the best plan is to follow along with Dasha herself.
You can also check out this Austin line dance tutorial in a somewhat more rural setting.
What are the lyrics to Dasha’s Austin
If you want to sing along, here are the words to Dasha’s Austin
[Verse 1]
We had a plan, move out of this town, baby
West to the sand, it’s all we talked about lately
I’d pack the car, bring your guitar and jane for smokin’
First thing at dawn, you’d queue the songs and we’d get goin’
But you weren’t home, waited on the porch for ya
Sat there alone, all throughout the morn’ ‘til I
Got a hunch down in my gut and snuck around the back
Empty cans and I’ll be damned, your shit was never packed
[Chorus]
Did your boots stop workin’?
Did your truck break down? (Truck break down)
Did you burn through money?
Did your ex find out? (Ex find out)
Where there’s a will, then there’s a way
And I’m damn sure you lost it
Didn’t even say goodbye
Just wish I knew what caused it
Was the whiskey flowin’?
Were you in a fight? (In a fight)
Did the nerves come get you?
What’s your alibi? (Alibi)
I made my way back to LA
And that’s where you’ll be forgotten
In forty years you’ll still be here
Drunk washed up in Austin
[Verse 2]
Hell of a bluff, you had me believin’
How many months did you plan on leavin’?
What happened? Bad habits?
Did you go back? Go batshit?
I loved you, how tragic, oh-oh
[Chorus]
Did your boots stop workin’?
Did your truck break down? (Truck break down)
Did you burn through money?
Did your ex find out? (Ex find out)
Where there’s a will, then there’s a way
And I’m damn sure you lost it
Didn’t even say goodbye
Just wish I knew what caused it
Was the whiskey flowin’?
Were you in a fight? (In a fight)
Did the nerves come get you?
What’s your alibi? (Alibi)
I made my way back to LA
And that’s where you’ll be forgotten
In forty years you’ll still be here
Drunk washed up in Austin
[Refrain]
Did your truck break down?
Did your ex find out?
Did Dasha write Austin?
Dasha co-wrote the song Austin. The other writers are Adam Wendler, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger and Kenneth Travis Heidelman
What album is Austin on?
Austin is on Dasha’s new eight-track LP called What Happens Now? which came out on February 16.
She debuted with a six-track EP $hiny Things in 2021, followed up by Dirty Blonde in January 2023.
Where is Austin, anyway?
Austin is the capital of Texas. It has a population of just under one million per the 2021 census.
It’s a major center for high tech industries and since 2021 hosts the corporate headquarters of Tesla, Elon Musk’s electric car company, which moved from Palo Alto in California.