Pop goes country! Justin Bieber teamed up with Dan + Shay on the 2020 Country Music Association Awards stage on Wednesday, November 11 — and the dreamy duet sent fans’ hearts racing.
“10,000 Hours,” which was released in October 2019, is nominated for Single of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year. Songwriters Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney also scored a nod for Vocal Duo of the Year at the 54th annual CMA Awards, which were held at the Music City Center in Nashville.
Last year, the 26-year-old Canadian pop star dropped the romantic country track shortly after tying the knot with wife Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin) for the second time in September 2019. The pair costarred in the music video — their first project as newlyweds — alongside Smyers, 33, Shay, 28, and each of their wives. The three couples shared sweet moments together in the video as the singers crooned the heartfelt lyrics.
“I’d spend 10,000 hours and 10,000 more,” they sing in the chorus. “Oh, if that’s what it takes to learn that sweet heart of yours / And I might never get there, but I’m gonna try / If it’s 10,000 hours or the rest of my life / I’m gonna love you.”
Shortly after they collaborated on the chart-topping single, Smyers and Mooney revealed that the “Sorry” singer put the duo on the spot at his 2019 wedding ceremony in South Carolina.
“We sang ‘Speechless’ and then Justin jumped on stage,” the country singers told Access Hollywood in November 2019. “We were about to release our new single ‘10,000 Hours.’ We had not ever performed it live. And he was like ‘Yo, you guys gotta sing ‘10,000 Hours,’ and he’s on the song with us, and it was like, ‘Uh, I don’t wanna embarrass ourselves but we don’t quite know the words. We’ve never sang it in front of anybody.’ We hacked our way through it. It was cool.”
Unlike other awards shows that have gone virtual amid the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 CMA Awards took place in front of a live audience in Nashville. Other scheduled performers included Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton and Thomas Rhett.
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