Daya

John Davisson – Daya

Artist development usually follows a familiar path that hopefully leads to headlining tours and, with any luck, maybe even Grammy nominations down the road. Daya has turned that idea on its head.

She won a Grammy Award for best dance record this year for “Don’t Let Me Down,” a song she did with The Chainsmokers, before embarking on her first headline tour, according to agents Matt Galle and Christine Cao of Paradigm.

“She had two really strong singles out on her own and the Chainsmokers track really elevated the attention on her after that,” Cao told Pollstar. “The Grammy win was a huge moment for her. There will be a lot more to come.”

Daya certainly has a head start. The 18-year-old from Pittsburgh has worked to build a career for at least the last two years. While the Grammy and collaboration with the white-hot Chainsmokers may have put the spotlight on her, her team was already prepared with a deliberate development plan.

“We wanted to put together her first headline tour of rooms we thought were right for Daya to sell out and establish her as a headliner. We accomplished that,” Galle told Pollstar.   

“She did a bunch of great festivals this year, too. We wanted to put up a lot of festivals in her portfolio. We also wanted to concentrate on international and, in August, she’s going over to Asia: Japan for SummerSonic; there’s a festival in Manila, another in Jakarta and a headline date in Seoul. She’ll be there for about two weeks,” Galle said.

Daya has also established herself as an artist who appeals to a broad audience, in part by reaching out to diverse program directors including those at college radio, performing at fairs, and Las Vegas residencies in venues she isn’t old enough to enter as a customer.

“It’s pretty impressive to see the wide scope of fans she’s reached and that have bought into the Daya business,” Galle said.

“We were focused on making sure those soft-ticket plays were in place up to the headline dates and, as a result, we were able to build both of those in a pretty solid way,” Cao added. “We waited a long time to do a headline run and that was strategic. Eventually, it felt right and she’s been able to do some really great business that way.”