- Country music vocalists, musicians and songwriters Dan Smyers and James Shay Mooney, formed in 2012 in Nashville Tennessee.
- Smyers was raised in western Pennsylvania, while Mooney was raised in Arkansas. They both played music and wrote songs as teenagers, with Dan leaning toward pop punk music and Shay leaning toward rap. Smyers found himself writing country songs, and he moved to Nashville as a starving artist, hoping to get a break. Mooney tried college briefly, and then decided to try a career in music, moving to Nashville. They met by chance at a house party that Dan was hosting in December 2012, and they immediately began collaborating with one another. The first song they wrote got the attention of Rascal Flatts, and quickly their reputation as songwriters grew. Within 2 months, they signed a contract with a publishing company, and soon after, a recording contract was signed.
- Now dubbed Dan + Shay, their debut single was released in October 2013, just 10 months after they met. 19 You + Me reached #7 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and #42 on the Hot 100 chart. Their debut album Where It All Began was released in 2014, reaching #1 on the Country Album chart. It included their first #1 Country Airplay single, Nothin’ Like You.
- Their follow up album, Obsessed, was released in 2016. Two singles from the album peaked at #1 on the Country Airplay chart – From the Ground Up and How Not To. These sweet country ballads contrasted the bro-country sound that was dominating country music in the mid 10s.
- In 2017, they contributed When I Pray For You for the soundtrack to the film The Shack. It reached #3 on the Hot Christian Songs chart.
- Their most recent album, the self titled Dan + Shay, was released in 2018. Three singles from the album all peaked at #1 on the Country Airplay chart – Tequila, Speechless and All To Myself – and the first 2 were their first #1 songs on the Hot Country Songs chart. Tequila won them their first Grammy award, for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, which they performed at the 2019 Grammy Awards show. It also is their highest charting single crossing over to the Hot 100 chart, reaching #21. Tequila and Speechless were 2 of the 5 most streamed country music songs for the entire year in 2018. Speechless won the Grammy for Best Country Duo/Group Performance in 2020.
- Several singles were released in 2019 – 2021 that are expected to be on a future studio album. One of the songs was a collaboration with Justin Bieber – 10,000 Hours reached #4 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Country chart, and it won a Grammy award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance in 2021. I’m expecting any future album will be huge. Lots of country pop harmony! Here’s the video to Speechless, written by Dan + Shay soon after both artists were married – it was inspired by their emotions when seeing their brides to be at the end of the aisle as they stepped forward to tie the knot.