DAN+SHAY, OTHER HOLIDAY SOUNDS TO WELCOME NOVEMBER

How best to welcome November? With only a few weeks until Christmas day, nothing beats Christmas sounds.

- BABY A. GIL

And there is something to be truly excited about Yuletide music this year. No, Jose Mari Chan has no new Christmas album. Neither has Mariah Carey. But Dan+Shay has and it is such a joy to listen to.

Dan+Shay is this country music duo which leapt into the pop charts with a series of country, but also so pop love songs, a few years ago. Remember Speechless? That was Dan+Shay.

Tequila? That too was Dan+Shay. They also did From the Ground Up, All To Myself, Keeping Score with Kelly Clarkson and that fantastic earworm of a song, 10,000 Hours with Justin Bieber.

Dan+Shay is made up of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, singers and songwriters both. They were solo acts or with other groups when they met and just started singing and writing songs together. Unlike most country acts, the duo had a style that was softer and sweeter than the usual country ballads. This is why it proved easy for them to break into the pop charts.

Hence the hits and later global acceptance.