Darwin-born VASSY’s track “Bad” cracks two billion worldwide streams

Ahead of her return to Darwin for BASSINTHEGRASS, recording sensation Vassy Karagiorgos has more than two billion reasons to be happy after hitting a historic milestone.

EDM superstar VASSY was born and raised in Darwin, NT. Picture: Anna Azarov Photography

Darwin-born recording artist VASSY has joined one of the most exclusive clubs in music after her dance hit “Bad” cracked two billion streams worldwide.

The 41-year-old from Darwin shares the company of other homegrown chart-toppers like Sia and Vance Joy after recording industry group APRA presented her with its Billions List Award at a ceremony earlier this month.

She is back home from the US preparing to headline the BASSINTHEGRASS music festival this Saturday, where she said fans could expect both dance rhythms and a special acoustic set.

Darwin-born recording artist VASSY was presented the Billions List Award for her track “Bad” produced by David Guetta. Picture: Supplied

Born Vasiliki Karagiorgos to a Greek family, the singer told the NT News “you can take the girl out of Darwin but you can’t take Darwin out of the girl”.

“As soon as you come back home you get such a reality check and everyone is so real,” VASSY said.

“Sometimes if you’ve been in this industry for a while it can be bad for you, but that’s what I love about being here, everyone brings you down to earth.”

Her ubiquitous 2014 hit with French producer David Guetta was a career milestone and went double platinum on the ARIA charts.

“It’s pretty wild,” VASSY said about the success of “Bad”.

“I wrote it back in the day not thinking it would explode and here it is, and people seem to know it inside out.

“The lyrics are so simple but effective. People will always take over and sing when I’m playing it … It has this anthem feel, like you want to listen to it in the arena.”

VASSY is performing at Darwin’s Bass in the Grass festival on Saturday. Picture: Anna Azarov

While she acknowledged that festival-goers will expect her dance hits on Saturday, VASSY said she enjoyed performing acoustic because “a great song is a great song no matter how you cut it”.

“I love doing my songs acoustically because that’s how a song is written, without all the production and the extras,” she said.

“It’s not to say my EDM days are gone because I still perform those songs in all my sets, but I just want to explore different tones of music and do my own thing.”

Her new single Midnight will drop on May 17, and she described it as a “disco house, pop-leaning dance record” with celebrated UK producer Punctual.

She said she hoped her rise through the charts would encourage other homegrown musos to follow in her footsteps.

“I don’t want people to think you can’t achieve what you want just because you’re from Darwin, because we’re so far away from everywhere else – dream out loud and dream big,” she said.