Dan + Shay Reflect on Crossover Success of Their Music: ‘It’s Been Crazy’

Dan + Shay have had several hit singles at radio, including two recent No. 1 songs, “Tequila” and “Speechless,” which landed on the pop charts as well. The duo, made up of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, is grateful not only for their success, but the pop artists who champion their music as well.

“It’s been crazy,” Smyers reflected to PopCulture.com and other media. “It’s been cool to see the crossover. I feel like more people have kind of been listening to our music. It’s been cool to see people like Sean Mendez hearing our music for the first time. I think ‘Tequila’ kind of did that for us and put us into a new place where people were hearing us for the very first time. It’s just been kind of crazy, the cool people we’ve gotten to meet just through music.

“That’s the beauty of country music,” he continued. “It’s all such a family. Anytime we get to meet people outside the genre that are big fans of country music is a really cool thing. We got to meet a lot of cool people through that. We can say that they’re the most famous people we know. We’re definitely probably the least famous people that the Jonas Brothers know.

“Pretty sure they don’t even have our numbers saved,” Mooney added with a laugh.

Dan + Shay are also proud that their music has converted some big pop stars into country music fans after hearing their music.

“It’s cool to meet people, other genres and people that are doing other things, and realize how many people truly love country music,” Smyers said. “We have folks like Sean Mendez, or Demi Lovato hit us up and be like, ‘I am obsessed with country music. The storytelling, the songs, the harmonies, everything,’ and that’s awesome. We’re so proud to be a part of this community and to have people from the outside looking in like, ‘I wish we had something like that. I wish we had that sense of community,’ just makes us feel really glad to be here in Nashville doing what we do.”

Dan + Shay hint that some of their pop star friends might make an appearance on their next record.

“We’re always open to new things, to be able to work with new people,” Mooney said. “I think that’s the coolest thing too about country music. People are just such fans of Nashville because we truly believe that this is where the greatest songs in the world are written. You walk down Music Row and the storytelling and the way that people are able to put in emotion inside of a song is, I think intriguing to a lot of people outside of Nashville, so I think they do it best.

“We’re definitely open to collaborations,” he added. “We kind of had our first collaboration with Kelly Clarkson. That was amazing. Such huge fans of her and it was kind of our first dive into that. We’re definitely open to that.”

Dan + Shay collaborated with Clarkson on “Keeping Score,” from their latest, self-titled album. Purchase the record on their website.

Photo Credit: Getty/Jeff Kravitz