Dan + Shay’s Pop Star Friendships Gives Them Fresh Perspective on the Country Genre

Country super duo Dan + Shay are indeed famous, but definitely not as famous as the Jonas Brothers. Yet, the duo is surprised that the famous brothers, and everyone else, is hearing their music.

Dan + Shay’s Pop Star Friends and Reflections in Country Music

Both Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney felt a mixture of surprise, excitement, and a little confused when they got a last-minute text asking if they would perform their hit wedding anthem “Speechless” at Joe Jonas’ wedding to Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.

Smyers recalls the last-minute text that they received about the request.

“They texted us three or four days in advance. I feel like when we got the text, we thought it was a joke or a prank. True enough, after the [2019 Billboard Music Awards on May 1], they were like, ‘Hey, meet us here.’ There was an Elvis impersonator doing the wedding. It was a whole thing. It was great.”

This is just part of the reality that Smyers and Mooney are waking up to. They expressed their delight in the current reach of their music, spanning even outside of the country genre. Mooney reflects on the thought.

“It’s been cool to see people like [pop star] Shawn Mendes hearing our music for the first time. I think “Tequila” kind of did that for us, put us into a new place where people were hearing us for the very first time. […] “It’s just been kind of crazy, the cool people we’ve gotten to meet through music. Any time we get to meet people outside the genre that are big fans of country music, that’s a really cool thing. We’ve gotten to meet a lot of cool people through that.”

Them rubbing elbows with artists from other genres have them realizing things about the country genre as well. Their eyes opened to the idea that a lot of people actually love and adore country music. In fact, they’ve been very interested in hearing other musician’s perspectives take on country music.

Smyers and Mooney’s forged friendships with artists outside of the country genre allowed for swapping notes, and comparisons on different formats, hoping to grow the already amazing genre.