After Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney — Dan + Shay — won their first Grammy Award on Sunday night (Feb. 10), they came backstage to talk about the weight of it it all.
Not in terms of its significance, or some kind of heavy power, or like a burden almost. Just its literal weight.
“I didn’t know these Grammys were so heavy. I’m getting my bicep curls in right now,” Smyers joked with reporters. And he’s not wrong. Each gilded gramophone comes in at six pounds. But then he turned serious when he talked about the duo’s win for best country duo/group performance for their song “Tequila.”
“What an honor, all the incredible artists performing onstage. We feel not worthy. This is such a prestigious show. We watched it every single year growing up and to just be here for the first time is a dream come true,” he added, “let alone winning our very first award and getting to perform on the show is absolutely incredible.”
And is there more where “Tequila” came from? Yes. Smyers said that every time the two of them get into a writing room, they want to excel past where they’ve been. “Our fans and everybody in the music industry deserves that from us. And hopefully this is just the beginning and not our last Grammy awards.”
Not only did Dan + Shay win a Grammy, they also had the chance to share the winning song with the world. And not just a piece of it, but all 3:26 minutes of it. If you were watching, there’s a good chance you were blown away by Mooney’s last note. It lasted 14 seconds, but felt like it went on forever. And ever. It sounds like that was kind of his intention.
“Before we performed I was thinking, ’I’m going to try and hold that note at the end until I pass out,’” Mooney said. “And I think I may be passed out right now. I don’t know if this is all real. But that was just a really cool moment. I’m still on cloud nine. It’s amazing.”
Dan + Shay’s next tour stop is on Feb. 28 in New Orleans.