Derik John Baker (born January 31, 1990), known as Virginia To Vegas, is an American-born Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. He is based in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. He is best known for his gold and platinum-certified singles, " We Are Stars", " Lights Out", "Selfish", "Just Friends" and "Betterman", released through Wax Records and

Ultra Records Ultra Records is an American record label formed in New York City in 1995 by former PolyGram and Virgin Records executive Patrick Moxey. As of December 23, 2012, Ultra entered a global partnership with Sony Music, giving its artists access to ...

Beginnings

Although Derik John Baker was born in the United States, he was raised in Guelph and Toronto, Ontario, where he attended high school at Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute. After high school, Derik attended

Sheridan College Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (formerly Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology) is a public polytechnic institute of technology located in the west- Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. Founded i ...

for studies in Travel and Tourism.

Career

2013–2014: Career beginnings and ''Vol. I''

Virginia To Vegas was signed to an independent full service 100% Canadian music company Wax Records in July 2013, after label executive, Jamie Appleby, discovered him on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. The first single " We Are Stars" was released on January 7, 2014, and entered the Canadian Singles Top 100 chart at 94 on week 5, February 1, 2014, peaked at 14 and stayed for one week. On November 10, 2014, Virginia to Vegas released his debut EP ''Vol. I'', which includes his Platinum-certified debut single "We Are Stars".

2015–2016: ''Utopian''

Virginia to Vegas released a new single, "

Our Story Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...

", on May 4, 2015. On September 2, 2016, he released a new single, " Lights Out", which samples Rockwell's 1984 single, "

Somebody's Watching Me "Somebody's Watching Me" is a song recorded by American singer Rockwell, released by the Motown label in 1984, as the lead single from his debut studio album of the same name. It features guest vocals by brothers Michael Jackson (in the choru ...

". That fall, he announced that his debut studio album would be released by the end of 2016. ''

Utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

'' was released on December 2, 2016 and features all four of his singles released through that date. This was when he first got signed to a U.S record company of

2017–2019: ''Hartland St.''

On February 24, 2017, Virginia To Vegas released a new single called "Selfish". On November 8, he released another single called "Emotions". His next single "Yesterday" was released on October 12, 2018. Finally, he released "Just Friends" on May 24, 2019. All these songs are featured on his second EP ''Hartland St.'', which was released on June 14, 2019. Hartland Street is the name of the actual street he lives on in real life. This was when he moved to, was living in, and was leaving

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

at a time.

2020–2022: ''A Constant State of Improvement'' and ''Don't Wake Me, I'm Dreaming''

Only months after the release of ''Hartland St.'', Virginia To Vegas released the single "Betterman" on February 14, 2020, followed by an EP titled ''A Constant State of Improvement'' on February 28, 2020, which includes the song "Betterman". On October 30, 2020, he released another EP, ''Don't Wake Me, I'm Dreaming'', which includes the lead single "Palm Springs (The Way You Made Me Feel)", released on September 18. In September 2021, he collaborated with

MacKenzie Porter MacKenzie Lea Porter (born January 29, 1990) is a Canadian country singer, songwriter, and actress. She has released one self-titled album and achieved four Canada Country number ones with " About You", "These Days", " Seeing Other People", and " ...

on the single " This Sucks.".

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Compilation extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Promotional singles

Awards

Virginia to Vegas performed at the 2014

Canadian Radio Music Awards The Canadian Radio Music Awards were an annual series of awards presented by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters that was part of Canadian Music Week. The award show ran from 2016 to 2018. There has been no information on the future of the e ...

where he was nominated for the Heartseeker Award. His radio success with his first three singles "We Are Stars", "Don't Fight the Music", and "Our Story" contributed to him being nominated for Pop Artist or Group of the Year at the 2015 Sirius XM Indie Awards. "We Are Stars", "Lights Out" and "Selfish" all earned Virginia to Vegas

Socan The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collects ...

awards for pop recordings of the year. In 2015 Virginia to Vegas was awarded at the Canadian Radio Music Awards for the Factor Breakthrough Artist of the Year. He received a Juno Award nomination for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 2018 The Juno Awards of 2018, honouring Canadian music achievements, were presented in Vancouver, British Columbia during the weekend of 24–25 March 2018. The primary telecast ceremonies were held at Rogers Arena. Vancouver previously hosted the Juno ...

."Arcade Fire and Daniel Caesar lead 2018 Juno Award nominations"
CBC Music, February 6, 2018.

References

External links

''Billboard'' Artist Page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Virginia to Vegas 1990 births Living people 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Canadian male singers American emigrants to Canada American expatriates in Canada American male pop singers American male singer-songwriters American pop rock singers Canadian male singers Canadian male singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters Canadian pop singers Musicians from Guelph