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Dan + Shay received six nominations for the 2019 ACM Awards!
At this Sunday’s ceremony, country music pair Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney are up for Duo of the Year, Album of the Year for Dan + Shay, Single of the Year, Song of the Year and Video of the Year for “Tequila,” as well as Music Event of the Year for “Keeping Score,” featuring Kelly Clarkson.
In addition to all of the nods, the musical group will take the stage to perform at this weekend’s award show. But, before we see them at the ceremony on Sunday, we wanted to get to know Dan + Shay a little bit better.
Let’s take a look at five things you might not know about Dan + Shay!
1. They’re Close Pals with Nick Jonas: Dan and Shay have been friends with Nick Jonas for years now, with the Jonas Brothers singer supporting the country duo on many occasions. It was four years ago that the trio performed together at the 2015 ACM Awards.
“Our managers connected us first,” Nick shared in a behind-the-scenes video in 2015. “And I heard that they liked what I was doing and I love what they were doing, and it just happened pretty organically.”
The group of pals also added another celeb to their squad in 2017: Niall Horan! It was two years ago that Shay shared a selfie with the star-studded group, captioning the Instagram post, “Last night was a TIME.”
2. Shay Mooney Was Actually Born James Shay Mooney: That’s right, James Shay Mooney was born on Dec. 27, 1991, but he goes by his middle name “Shay.”
3. Their Weddings Were Five Months Apart: On May 13, 2017, Dan married his longtime love Abby Law. Then, in Oct. 2017, Shay tied the knot with former Miss Arkansas Hannah Billingsley. The gorgeous weddings can be seen in the duo’s “Speechless” music video above!
4. Dan + Shay Will Celebrate Their Seventh Anniversary This Year: Dan and Shay first met in Dec. 2012 in Nashville.
“We met in December, actually, at his house, at a party,” Shay told Taste of Country in 2013. “I get to this party, I’m walking in this old house. It was a terrible house, of course, a typical Nashville starting-artist house.”
Dan added, “I had no money to pay for heat, so I went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of sheets. [We] tented out the whole living room, and we retained all the heat in there. We all just hung out, huddled around…Shay and I were jamming that night, and we’ve been writing three songs a day every since.”
And, as the saying goes, the rest is country music history!
5. They Performed on The Bachelorette: Do you remember this, Bachelor Nation? Back in 2016, the duo performed “From the Ground Up” for JoJo Fletcher and contestant Luke Pell during their date in Pennsylvania.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Dan told CMT in 2016. “We just got a call from the show and found out that they loved our song. ‘From the Ground Up,’ and they asked if we would we want to come sing it for JoJo. We were like, ‘Absolutely.'”
Be sure to watch the 2019 ACM Awards this Sunday, April 7 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.