Northern Dial Artist Profile

Virginia to Vegas

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Virginia to Vegas is the pop project of Derik John Baker, who was raised between the United States and Ontario before establishing himself in Toronto's songwriting scene. After online demos brought him to the attention of Wax Records, he signed with the label in 2013 and broke through with "We Are Stars," a collaboration with Alyssa Reid that introduced his melodic electronic-pop approach to Canadian radio. The early success led to a Canadian Radio Music Awards breakthrough honour and set up his first full-length album, Utopian.

Rather than disappearing after that initial single, Baker built Virginia to Vegas into a consistent radio act. Songs including "Lights Out," "Selfish," "Just Friends" and "betterman" became Top 10 and multi-platinum Canadian hits, while a JUNO nomination reflected his growing place in the domestic pop landscape. The 2020 project Don't Wake Me, I'm Dreaming continued his preference for clean electronic production, emotionally direct melodies and songwriting designed to work equally well on radio and streaming playlists.

A period working in Los Angeles broadened Baker's international writing network, but he later returned to Toronto and built a more self-contained creative team around the project. That move reinforced what makes Virginia to Vegas notable in Canadian pop: the act is not defined by celebrity persona so much as repeatable songcraft. Across more than a decade, Baker has turned understated electronic-pop writing into a catalogue of Canadian radio staples and one of the steadier homegrown pop careers of the streaming era.