Dan + Shay have been nominated in the Vocal Duo of the Year a total of six times, taking home their first trophy in the category at the recent CMA Awards. The duo, made up of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, were up against Florida Georgia Line, Brothers Osborne, Maddie & Tae and Brooks & Dunn for Vocal Duo of the Year, and never expected to hear their name called as the winner.
“This is absolutely insane,” Smyers shared with PopCulture.com and other media backstage at the CMA Awards. “Shay and I’ve chased this dream our entire lives. We grew up listening to country music. We moved to this town because we wanted to write country music, because we wanted to someday be a part of this community, which is so incredible. I can’t believe we’ve been accepted into this community. We get to hold these. I don’t even know if this is real. I feel like we could be living in a dream right now.
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“We worked our tails off,” he continued. “We wrote songs. We wrote two or three songs a day. We’re still doing the same thing. We moved here because we were fans of this format. We moved here because we were fans of country music, and we still are.”
Dan + Shay were also nominated for Album of the Year, for their eponymous third studio record, and Single of the Year, for “Speechless,” with Smyers also nominated for Song of the Year, for “Tequila” as well.
“Win or lose these awards, it’s an honor to be nominated,” Smyers noted. “It’s an honor. We worked so hard on this music. But to be recognized by our peers, by country music, is absolutely incredible. And for us, we’re still just fans at the core of all of it. We get front row, well second row seats. We weren’t front row, Blake and Gwen were in front of us. But second row seats to see the best show in the entire world. So we’re just thankful. It feels just as good as the day we met. This is absolutely insane.”
Dan + Shay are grateful for the accolade, but with it comes also more pressure, especially as they prepare for their fourth record.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” said Smyers. “We put out the self-titled album; we’ve got to figure out what to do next. We’re still racking our brains. But we knew this was a pivotal moment in our career.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Taylor Hill
