Dan + Shay are once again nominated for an ACM Award, for Duo of the Year. The nomination marks their 12th nod in the category, which they have won a total of four times.
But this year’s nomination feels extra sweet, as both Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney are back to doing what they do best: making music together. It’s a celebration that almost didn’t happen, when they famously took four months away from each other, coming back together in 2022.
“There was a time that Dan + Shay, we, not to just put it too bluntly, we didn’t know if we’d make music together for a while,” Mooney acknowledges. “We went through some very low lows there, and it took a lot of work to get us back to the place where we are now. And we have never been in this good of a place ever in our career. Dan and I, we hang out on a random day, just to hang out. We just started hanging out again as friends, and we’re just so grateful.
“And I feel like, to be able to wake up and do this job for a living is absolutely wild to us,” he continues. “You can make all the money in the world, but if you don’t have good people around you, and you’re not have any experiences with people that you love it, it’s just kind of all for nothing.”
Dan + Shay just celebrated their 11th No. 1 single, with “Bigger Houses.” The song is the title track of Dan + Shay’s fifth studio album. It was a bit of a full-circle moment for Smyers and Mooney, to have “Bigger Houses” reach the top of the charts.
‘This was the final song written for the album, and defined the era in such an important way,” the duo said when the song hit No. 1. “Thank you to our team for championing this one all the way to the top of the chart. It’s not lost on us that working a song like this (no drums or shiny production) is a challenge, but you faced it head-on and delivered, like you always do. Thank you to our country radio family for taking a chance on this song, and helping us share it with millions and millions of listeners, week after week. Your support means more to us than we could ever put into words.”
“Bigger Houses” was also nominated for a Grammy Award, for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. The nomination was further validation that Dan + Shay were back where they belonged: together.
“It’s crazy man,” Mooney said, speaking of their nomination. “We got nominated for a Grammy on that song, which is absolutely mind-blowing. Whenever Dan and I first recorded the song, and decided to push this as a single, I feel like our radio team was probably like, ‘What are you guys thinking? The song is so slow.’ But we’ve always run with our gut on singles, and really listened to our fans. I know the stories that we were hearing from people about this song in particular, it just really hit us. We knew that we had something really special here.”
The 2025 ACM Awards will air live on Prime Video from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday, May 8 at 8:00 PM ET. A very limited number of tickets are still available at SeatGeek. More information is available at ACMCountry.com.