ABC/Image Group LABecause 2020 just can’t get any crazier, Justin Bieber is nominated for three Academy of Country Music Awards tonight. The nods come for his hit “10,000 Hours” collaboration with Dan + Shay — and the duo tells ABC Audio that not only is Justin “very excited” about them, but they’ve promised to “hand-deliver” the trophies to him if they win.
“Yeah, he’s definitely informed,” says Shay Mooney when asked if the pop superstar is even aware that he’s up for a bunch of awards tonight.
“He is very excited and it’s really cool for him: He’s always been a huge country music fan. So to be able to be in this genre — something that he’s not normally involved in — I think was…kind of a cool check off his bucket list,” Shay adds.
And if they win?
“We’ll hand-deliver [the trophies],” laughs Dan Smyers. “[Like], ‘Hey man, [remember] we put out a song together?'”
“No, it’s awesome. It’s super exciting to have him on the song,” Dan adds, all joking aside. “I know he was super-pumped…when we first got it going, he was like, ‘Man, thank you guys for putting me on country radio. This is amazing.’ And we’re like, ‘Thank you for introducing us to listeners in China!'”
“He has such a big fan base and whenever the song dropped it, you know, exposed our music to so many people and we’ll always be grateful for that, man,” Dan admits. “It’s a big one.”
“10,000 Hours” scored nods for Song of the Year, Video of the Year and Music Event of the Year at the ACMs (Music Event went to Miranda Lambert in a pre-ceremony announcement.) The show airs live from Nashville tonight on CBS with host Keith Urban.
By Carena Liptak and Andrea Dresdale
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