Dasha Puts Her Stamp on Ricky Manning’s Viral Hit, ‘Someone Else & Jesus’

Dasha is opening a new chapter following her Anna EP, and she’s kicking it off with a stunning reimagining of Ricky Manning’s viral ballad “Someone Else & Jesus.”

Dasha ended up discovering the powerful narrative through an ex situationship and became “obsessed” with the rawness of Manning’s solo write.

“I was like, what is this song? This is amazing. I was just literally floored. I made him play it five times in a row and it was Ricky’s first song since I think he was on The Voice,” Dasha told Country Now. “The way he wrote the song was so real. He didn’t go into a room and be like, ‘here’s the concept I want to write.’ It’s like, no, no, no. That was a real a** song. And he felt everything he said. And those songs are so few and far between. It’s so hard to get a song like that just you can’t fake it. That’s real.”

Just two weeks after hearing it for the first time, the genre-bending star says she and Manning ended up meeting “by the grace of God” in a studio house. The pair got to know each other in a short amount of time, with Dasha noting she even invited him to attend her birthday party the following day. This prompted him to invite her to write and sing a fresh verse for the song.

“He texted me, he was like, ‘Hey, do you want to feature, I don’t know, you’re probably busy, but do you want to feature?’ And I was like, ‘I will drop everything. I’m going to do this.’ And so we got into the studio and we cooked around and we wrote this verse and it was just so, so fun.”

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So what started as a deeply personal story of reflection from Manning that earned millions of streams, has now become a track that offers another take on heartbreak from a female’s perspective. The new version feels even more vulnerable and reveals even more devastation over a failed relationship.

The musical chemistry between these artists is undeniable as Dasha’s rich and textured voice wraps around Manning’s smooth vocals and makes the heartbreak at hand feel even sharper. The songstress shares her diary-like confessional before they come together to trace every bruise around their battered hearts on the pain-stricken chorus.

“We’d laugh and say we knew it/ That you and I are inevitable/ Oh, so tied forever whole together/ Irrevocably chemical/ Have a kid that looks like you/ Can’t believe they’ll never meet us/ ‘Cause I skipped town/ And you’re a stranger now/ Loving someone else and Jesus,” they sing, wearing their hearts on their sleeves in the faith-driven lyrics.

The “Like It Like That” singer admits that joining the song wasn’t about chasing a hit, but about following her instincts as an artist and songwriter.

“I did this feature for me, really truly, this is something that I wanted to do as an artist, as a songwriter. And it’s so exciting to see how many people are really excited about it too, because…this is such a song for songwriters and I just am just so grateful that he wants me on the song. It’s just so cool. So I’m a fan. It’s going to be fun,” she shared.

“I feel so lucky to have Dasha on this record,” Manning says of the songstress. “She has been known for her fun, pop country tunes, which is incredible, but I think there is this deeper side to her that ‘Someone Else & Jesus’ taps into – and she sounds stunning. I’m so excited for people to hear us sing this song together.”

The original ballad already stuck a chord among listeners when it went viral on social media last year gut-punch honesty that hones in on the kind of heartbreak you never fully shake. It follows someone who’s trying to move on but keeps finding themselves falling into a fantasy version of their past relationship, one where everything finally works out as they had planned.

Dasha’s addition to “Someone Else & Jesus” arrives just two weeks following a major milestone in her career. She celebrated the incredible achievement of joining the Spotify Billions Club with her breakout hit “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” which makes her the first woman to do so from a debut country project.

The rising country act will kickstart next year’s run of live dates in February and will continue through August with a mix of headline dates and festival appearances.