Songfacts®:

• Written by Dan + Shay's Dan Smyers, along with Jordan Reynolds and Nicolle Galyon, "Tequila" is a reflective, pop-country heartbreaker about how the song's titular liquor reminds the duo of a lost love.
  
  When I taste tequila
  Baby, I still see ya
  
  Dan Smyers recalled to The Boot: "We wrote that song with our buddy Jordan and Nicolle. Jordan knows we drink tequila - he knows that's our go-to - so he was like, 'What if we wrote a song called "Tequila?"' That's how a lot of our writing sessions start."
• Rather than penning lyrics about downing shots and partying the night away, the songwriters flipped the script and wrote a number about the memories that coming flooding back every time the lovelorn guy sips tequila. Smyers explained:
  
  "In typical Nashville songwriter fashion, we made it as confusing as possible for the listener: Instead of writing a feel-good, uptempo kind of thing, we were like, 'Let's go to the Dan + Shay wheelhouse: nostalgia zone!' We used the idea of tequila as a trigger to go back to a relationship and get really specific with the details, really tell a story."
• Tequila is a Mexican alcoholic drink made from the agave plant. Other artists that have released songs inspired by the beverage include The Champs, The Eagles, Joe Nichols, Kenny Chesney and. Randy Rogers Band.
• Dan Smyers takes lead vocals on this tune. He revealed to Billboard that it's not his musical partner Shay Mooney who's harmonizing with him on the background parts, but his wife. Incredibly, Abby Law Smyers' 12 tracks of "when I, when I" harmony represented her first ever time in front of a microphone.
• The song's music video set in the Colorado mountains stars deaf and mute actor, model and activist Nyle DiMarco (America's Next Top Model, Dancing With The Stars) and Instagram personality Mica Von Turkovich. The pair portray a couple who fall in love with each other while cross-country skiing and learn to communicate through sign language (and tequila). Dan Smyers and director Patrick Tracy wrote the treatment.
  
  Tracy explained in a behind the scenes film: "The video is inspired by two things, the beauty of Colorado and raising awareness to the deaf community."
• The song was Dan + Shay's first Hot 100 Top 40 hit. Their previous best placing had been "19 You + Me," which peaked at #42.
• After a 19-week wait at #2 on the Country chart, "Tequila" eventually climbed to the summit, dethroning another Dan + Shay song, "Speechless," in the process. Nineteen weeks is a record for longest time at #2 on the chart.
• The song was born during one of Dan Smyers, Jordan Reynolds and Nicolle Galyon's first writing sessions together in early 2016. Reynolds told The Boot that he had the title, "When I Taste Tequila," in his phone, which someone had said in passing over the winter break. He mentioned it to Smyers and Galyon when they sat down for their second write of the year, and they loved the idea.
• This won for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the Grammy Awards in 2019. Dan + Shay performed it at the ceremony.
• "Tequila" won both Song of the Year and Single of the Year at the 2019 ACM Awards. It was the first hit to win both awards in the same year since Miranda Lambert's "Over You" did so in 2013. Dan + Shay also took home the Duo of the Year trophy.
• This was named Country Song of the Year at the 2019 BMI Country Awards held in Nashville on November 12, 2019. It was also named the most-performed country song of the year.