Dan + Shay ‘Never Imagined’ They’d Win 3 ACM Awards in One Night
Dan + Shay cleaned up at the 2019 ACM Awards. The duo's Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney took home trophies for Duo of the Year, Single of the Year and Song of the Year during Sunday night's (April 7), with Smyers receiving two additional single and Song of the Year trophies for his work as a producer and songwriter, respectively. Backstage after their big wins, the pair admitted that the night was more than they could have ever dreamed.
"We're just fans of country music. We moved to Nashville in 2010 because we wanted to write country music. We never imagined this would happen. This is so surreal," Smyers told The Boot and other reporters in the media room. "It has been such a cool moment, and we are just honestly so thankful. We are still trying to process it all."
Other stars couldn't help but notice the winning Smyers and Mooney were doing, either. ACM Awards host Reba McEntire joked about the night being "Dan + Shay's Great Adventure," a quip the pair heard from their tour bus while getting ready for their performance. Backstage, they admitted that the call-out floored them, so much so that they had to rewind to re-watch it.
"After the second [win], I was just like, 'This is absolutely crazy,'" Mooney admits. "You work so hard every single day back in Nashville, and we both families, we live our lives, and we experience things, and we write about them, and you spend years sometimes putting together a record."
Mooney was quick to credit his duo partner Smyers for his hard work on their self-titled third studio album, the project that earned them their 2019 ACM Awards, as well as nominations in three other categories. Smyers helped produce the project.
"I don't think he slept for, like, a year making this record, and to have that full-circle moment to where you know you have success on the radio after all the work you put into writing and recording the songs, and you hear fans singing back to you, and you get to an award show like this ... you can't even really put that into words," Smyers reflects, "but I am just so thankful."
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