Songfacts®:

• Dan + Shay have been buddies with Justin Bieber since the mid-2010s through Scooter Braun, who manages both acts. This song finds the country duo teaming up with the Canadian pop singer to celebrate their wives. We hear them singing about spending a lifetime learning about and loving their partners.
  
  I'd spend 10,000 hours and 10,000 more
  Oooh, 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
  
  Dan Smyers married Abby Law on May 13, 2017 and Shay Mooney wed Hannah Billingsley five months later. The country duo later performed the track at Bieber's September 30, 2019 wedding to Hailey Baldwin.
• The title "10,000 Hours" was inspired by a theory popularized by Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell that it takes 10,000 hours of diligent practice to achieve world-class expertise in any skill. Smyers and Mooney spun that idea into a love song together with their frequent collaborator Jordan Reynolds ("Tequila," "All to Myself") and Jessie Jo Dillon, who is the daughter of veteran Nashville scribe Dean Dillon.
  
  "Whether it's 10,000 hours to get to know that person and truly love them in the best way or it's just the rest of your life, that's the hook," Mooney explained to Taste of Country. "It's just about learning your significant other."
  
  As they wrote the song, Dan + Shay began to envision their pal Justin Bieber singing the second verse. They got in touch with him via text and he immediately agreed to jump on the tune. Bieber and his go-to songwriting partner Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd penned a couple of extra lines, putting his spin on it.
• The heartwarming video is an ode to marriage, as we see the three singers serenading their wives in various settings along with sweet home videos of their time together.
• The song gave Justin Bieber his very first country chart-topper when climbed to #1 on the tally dated October 19, 2019. It was the seventh Billboard chart that Justin has topped in his career following visits to the summit of the Hot 100, Hot Latin Songs, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Rap Songs, Hot R&B Songs, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. He is the first act ever to have reached number one on all seven of the tallies.
  
  This was the third country #1 for Dan + Shay following "Tequila" and "Speechless."
• Billy Joel's 1977 ballad "Just The Way You Are" served as inspiration for co-writer Jessie Jo Dillon. She'd read that he wrote the song from the perspective of what he wished someone would say to him.
• Dan + Shay cleaned up at the 2020 AMAs, winning all three awards for which they'd been nominated. The duo took home the Favorite Song and Collaboration of the Year gongs for "10,000 Hours," as well as the prize for Favorite Duo - Country.
• This won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance in 2021.
• It was a good thing that Jessie Jo Dillon didn't know about Bieber's contribution until after the song was recorded or else her nerves might have gotten the better of her. She explained in a 2021 Songfacts interview: "I would have overthought the song and probably screwed it up because Justin is in a league of his own, his star shines so brightly. I would have been intimidated by his body of work."
  
  She added: "Dan Smyers walked in with the idea for '10,000 Hours' and I remember saying, 'Okay guys, the worst thing we could do today is over-complicate this song. It needs to be simple like good love can be.' So we did just that, and wrote what I think is a simple and classic love song."
• A company named Melomega Music brought legal action against Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber, claiming "10,000 Hours" copied the soul song "The First Time Baby Is A Holiday," released in 2014 on the Sony Music unit The Orchard.
  
  Melomega Music, which owns the copyright to "The First Time Baby Is A Holiday," was set up by songwriter Frank Fioravanti, who co-wrote the song with Palmer Rakes in 1980.