Dan + Shay

Dan + Shay established themselves as country-pop vocalists with an affinity for crossing into mainstream pop realms, their inherent warmth standing in deliberate contrast to the prevailing bro-country aesthetic. Beginning with the 2015 Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper “Nothin’ Like You,” the pair accumulated additional number-one singles across the ensuing five years—“From the Ground Up,” “How Not To,” “Speechless,” “All to Myself,” and “Tequila”—the last of which earned them the 2019 Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. That sustained commercial run afforded them latitude to broaden their palette, first evident in the 2019 Justin Bieber collaboration “10,000 Hours,” which marked their initial bona-fide pop crossover. The track previewed the adventurous, genre-blending approach of 2021’s Good Things, while 2023’s Bigger Houses returned them to more familiar terrain behind the ballad “Save Me the Trouble.” Their 2024 holiday offering, It’s Officially Christmas: The Double Album, supplied seasonal material for fans.

Dan Smyers, raised in Wexford, Pennsylvania, and Shay Mooney, from Natural Dam, Arkansas, converged in Nashville during December 2012. Both had already spent their teenage years composing original material; Smyers performed with pop-punk outfits Transition and Bonaventure, while Mooney secured a recording contract through T-Pain’s Nappy Boy imprint. Following their introduction, the two began writing together almost at once. Early demos circulated through Nashville, attracting interest from Rascal Flatts and, subsequently, multiple publishing companies. They ultimately aligned with Warner Chappell and, soon afterward, Warner Nashville.

Under the name Dan + Shay, the duo issued their inaugural single, “19 You + Me,” in October 2013; it climbed to number 11 on Country Airplay. Their debut album, Where It All Began, arrived in April 2014. Follow-up single “Show You Off” peaked at 21, yet “Nothin’ Like You” reached the summit in December 2015, clearing the path for Obsessed. Released in June 2016, the set entered the Billboard 200 at number eight on the strength of the Country Airplay number one “From the Ground Up,” quickly succeeded by another chart-topper, “How Not To.” The July 2017 release “Road Trippin’” (number 42) maintained their presence while they prepared the next project.

“Tequila,” the lead single from that album, surfaced in January 2018, topping Country Airplay and stopping just outside the Billboard 200’s top twenty. “Speechless,” another number-one Country Airplay entry, preceded the June arrival of the self-titled Dan + Shay, which debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and number one on the country chart. The pair received the Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Tequila” in 2019 and repeated the honor in 2020 for “Speechless.” Early that year, “All to Myself” became the album’s third Country Airplay leader.

The late-2019 pairing with Justin Bieber on “10,000 Hours” yielded the duo’s first Hot 100 top-five placement, entering at number four while also claiming the Country Airplay summit. In July 2020 they unveiled “I Should Probably Go to Bed” to herald Good Things; the album incorporated pop and R&B textures and yielded further hits “Glad You Exist” and “You.” The 2023 cycle for Bigger Houses commenced with the July ballad “Save Me the Trouble,” followed by the full album in September. Dan + Shay closed out 2024 by issuing It’s Officially Christmas: The Double Album, a 21-track holiday collection.