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CU engineering student Dafna Margalit finds success and enjoyment in her music while completing her electrical engineering degree

Dafna Margalit’s most listened to track “8NIGHTS” with 2.45 million streams starts with her singing about a common Colorado experience, “The smell of winter air. I see you standing there. Covered head to toe in snow.”

The young artist and Boulder native is in her senior year at CU completing her degree in electrical engineering while creating songs from her surroundings and experiences in college.

Music is a significant piece of Dafna’s life and her upbringing. When she was four years old, she started playing classical piano. In middle school, Dafna learned guitar, bass and drums and discovered her voice when singing in her school’s musicals. She started to write music when she was 9 and was inspired to do so by her two older siblings, Noa and Guy, who also write music and graduated from CU with engineering degrees.

When she started at Fairview High School, she joined the choir to continue her musical and artistic passions. When she was 15, she won an opportunity through the eTown Handmade Songs Series program for highschool songwriters to have her song professionally recorded, which was a big opportunity and influence on her career. 

Dafna learned a significant amount about songwriting and music production through this program. She said, “It was the very first time where I learned what producing was and how the process went. It was a great opportunity that inspired me to continue my passion with songwriting.” With this experience under her belt and with the help of her older brother, Dafna learned how to make music on the computer and began producing her own music. 

Dafna later entered in a Battle of the Bands competition twice while in high school. Singing solo with her keyboard, she earned second place in her first entry. But for the second time, she found a bassist, drummer, and guitarist to play with her and she ultimately won first place. Dafna realized that performing with a live band was crucial to her success, so when she started at CU she was on a mission to meet more musicians to perform with her.

When starting at CU, Dafna joined CU’s only all woman’s a capella group, On the Rocks, where she has been a member for the remainder of her time here. She not only made life-long friends through the group, but it was also where she found a few band members to perform with her at concerts. Still, however, she was missing a bassist and a drummer, and Dafna ultimately found those through her engineering courses. 

“You have to be resourceful and make connections to be successful, and I am lucky to have found bandmates through a capella, through my classes and even through posting on CU Facebook groups,” she said.

Dafna said, “My education at CU has also helped with the promotional aspect of my music career. I learned how to code and develop websites through my classes, which has helped a lot with promoting my music.”

“If you’re thinking about doing something, work with the resources you have and make it happen,” she said. Dafna’s philosophy is to be proactive and resourceful, and she encourages aspiring musicians to do the same.

Since launching her musical career, Dafna has produced 2 albums, 1 EP and numerous singles, and she has amassed more than 100,000 listeners on Spotify with millions of streams.

Dafna’s lyrics touch a variety of topics and people in her life. She enjoys singing and songwriting since it is a way of self expression and an emotional outlet. Her lyrics are a way to connect with people and to communicate her feelings. Dafna said, “Music for me has always been a form of self-expression of what’s on my mind and also as a coping mechanism. In high school, I didn’t have that many life experiences, so I drew upon books and other stories as inspiration. More recently, my music has become more personal and I am writing about my own experiences. Capturing a moment or feeling in a song has made dealing with hardships much easier, and I know these are things that other people experience as well.”

All the while, Dafna has been a successful student at CU and has interned at Rival Games for the past 2 years. “I am passionate about both my engineering courses and my music career. I honestly haven’t found it too difficult to balance the two - I enjoy both of them a lot, so I find it easy to make the time to do the things that I love.’

On May 5, Dafna will shake hands with Dean Keith Moleenar, saying ‘goodbye’ to her academic career. However, her music and engineering career are just getting started. She has accepted a full-time position at Rival Games and will be moving to Los Angeles to work as a software engineer. She has already made connections with the music industry there through her brother, Guy, and through songwriters on TikTok. She said, “I’ve been connecting with people through TikTok and meeting with them whenever I visit my brother. I hope to use my connections to perform at venues and continue with my music career in Los Angeles.”

While her bandmates in Boulder will be parting ways, Dafna hopes that everyone finds a career they enjoy, and she is excited to be performing with her brother in a more ‘scaled-back’ setting. From starting in coffee shops in Boulder to performing with Covex at Red Rocks, and then headlining the Larimer Lounge in Denver, Dafna has come a long way since learning how to play the piano at four. Through her work as an electrical engineer and her emotional songwriting, Dafna is a living example of the true power of music.