Dan + Shay Say It’s Still ‘Surreal’ When Their Songs Are Played at Weddings
Dan + Shay are well known for their love songs — multi-Platinum hits like "From the Ground Up" and "Speechless" come to mind when considering their most romantic songs. These tunes have not only brought the duo success, but they've become staple wedding songs.
The duo says that a song from their Good Things album called "You" is also becoming popular in the wedding circuit.
"On this album, we have a song called 'You' that we love. It's a song that always felt great to us, but we've seen more of a connection to this song in the love space than we've seen," the pair's Dan Smyers tells Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. "We've had big wedding songs, 'From the Ground Up' and 'Speechless,' but this one, our DMs, every weekend, it's so crazy. We see so many people saying, 'This was our first dance,' or, 'This was the song in our wedding.'"
Although the Grammy-winning duo has earned countless accolades and broken records in their career, they say they're still surprised and honored that couples choose to play their songs at weddings.
"We always say for our song to be a part of somebody's wedding, that's arguably the biggest day of somebody's life, the biggest moment of somebody's life," Smyers adds. "For all the great songs that exist in the universe [and] for them to choose our song, that's the most surreal thing. That's such a cool thing."
Shay Mooney agrees, adding that he's incredibly honored to be included, albeit indirectly, on someone's special day. He also shares that the inspiration for their love songs comes from their own love stories with their wives.
"It's kind of crazy," he says, "I mean, like Dan said, that's a very important day in their life, arguably the most important day, and to be able to represent that and to be forever linked in that person's life is really crazy, but it's appropriate. We write all these songs and we're inspired because we have incredible wives and we get to write songs and write about what we know and we're both married and we know what it is to love."
Dan + Shay are currently opening for Kenny Chesney on his Here and Now Tour. The duo tell Lowe that when they're not touring during the week, they are writing and working on new music.
"We've been writing a lot, and we've just been hanging and getting to reconnect," says Mooney. "Obviously, over the pandemic was crazy. We didn't get to see each other a ton. I feel we were only seeing each other when we were working, and so we've been really focusing on our relationship, getting back to the roots and doing what we love, and that's sitting down with an acoustic guitar and writing songs."