Denitia grew up in refinery towns outside of Houston, Texas, moved to Music City to go to school and then to Brooklyn, New York, for a decade to pursue creative passions outside of country music. 2022 saw her return to both. Two years later, she’s one of CMT’s Next Women of Country.

“This is super meaningful to me,” Denitia said. “I’ve been playing music for a while now, but I made this return back home to the sounds of my youth and country music. It feels very pure and direct. I feel just at home with this music, and it is very exciting for me to be a part of the fabric and the tradition of country music and help move it forward.”

Denitia said she watched CMT constantly when she was a child in Texas and explained the network “was on loop” at her grandparents’ house. To be embraced by the country music community now “just means the world,” she said.

The singer was named an Artist to Watch by NPR after she earned one of five spots in the Black Opry and WXPN’s 2023 residency. She was a member of Rissi Palmer’s Color Me Country Class of 2023, one of three artists in CMT and mtheory’s 2023 Equal Access cohort, a 2023 AmericanaFest Showcasing Artist, a 2024 Artist to Watch by the Nashville Scene and CMT premiered her “I Want To Live” music video on their Times Square billboard in August of 2023.

“It gives me a lot of inspiration,” she continued.

Now, Denitia is on a Vince Gill kick and would love to sing with the Country Music Hall of Famer someday.

“I’m most excited about being deeply inspired by the country music of the ’90s, the ’80s, the ’70s, and the ’60s,” Denitia said. “I’m weaving that into my own story, filtering that through my voice with an eye on the future and what I can do to keep moving forward. It’s taking the tradition of country music and then moving into the future with it. That’s what I want people to get from me. I want to make music that connects with people and that moves people while being authentically myself.”