Songfacts®:

• Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney kicked off an arena-headlining tour in Nashville on March 6, 2020, but just six days later they were forced off the road by the COVID-19 pandemic and started to lockdown.
  
  While reflecting on the pandemic that's kept many people apart, Dan + Shay felt thankful for the people closest to them. They wrote this breezy song as a message of gratitude and love for the close family they were locked down with and all those loved ones they couldn't be with in person.
• Dan + Shay released the song on February 5, 2021. "We've spent the majority of the past year, like many others, searching for answers and a sense of normalcy, but finding comfort in memories of better days (that we all know will return soon)," the singers said.
  
  "This song has taken on new meaning not being able to see our loved ones in person, but throughout history, music has always had a special way of bringing people together, even when we are furthest apart," they continued. "These words hold a special place in our hearts, and hopefully they will in yours too."
• Dan Smyers arrived at the songwriting session with the song title already noted down. "I had the phrase 'glad you exist' written down on my phone and I always caught myself saying it to my wife," he told Radio.com. "I brought it to Shay and we started kicking around ideas. We thought it'd be a really cool song and to just turn it into a message about how grateful we are for everybody in our lives."
• Mooney and Smyers co-wrote "Glad You Exist" with:
  
  Producer and songwriter Ryan Lewis, who is best known for his partnership with the rapper Macklemore. His other credits include Kesha's single "Praying."
  
  Frequent Ariana Grande collaborator Tayla Parx ("Thank U, Next," "7 Rings," "POV"). She has also co-penned several songs for the girl group Little Mix, including their UK #1 single "Sweet Melody."
  
  Dan + Shay's frequent collaborator Jordan Reynolds ("Tequila," "All to Myself," "10,000 Hours").
• Here's to all the late night drunk phone calls that you picked up
  Here's to all the bad decisions that you didn't judge
  All the 'love you's and the 'hate you's and the secrets that you told me
  Here's to everyone, but mostly us
  
  Reynolds told Billboard that when Tayla Parxx came up with the "Here's to everyone, but mostly us" line, he, Dan, and Shay were all initially unsure, but Parx and Lewis pushed the lyric, saying, "That's girls looking at each other in the crowd and going, 'Here's to everyone, but mostly us.'" They finally came around to it, but Reynolds admitted that although it's a cool line, its not one that would normally be thrown out in Nashville.
• Dan + Shay wrote "Glad You Exist" before "10,000 Hours," but that Justin Bieber collaboration got released first, leaving the duo plenty of time to refine this song. Smyers estimated to Billboard that there are 80 vocal tracks within "Exist."
• Dan Smyers' wife Abby sings backup vocals on this song and several other Good Things tracks. "She's a good singer, she jumps on the mic with those kinds of things, like the pad, background vocals things, the more texture you get the better," Smyers told Audacy's Katie & Company. "And I'll layer like a hundred of my vocals, and I'm like it sounds like too much Dan and then she just comes in and drops a few lines and gives it that perfect shimmer and yeah it's a vibe."
  
  Other tracks Abby has contributed towards include "Tequila," "10,000 Hours," "I Should Probably Go to Bed" and "Good Things."
  
• When the song reached #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, Tayla Parx became the third Black woman to reach the top of the chart as songwriter. The previous two were:
  
  Allison Randall, who co-wrote Trisha Yearwood's 1994 chart-topper "XXX's & OOO's (An American Girl)" with Matraca Berg.
  
  Ester Dean, one of 11 co-writers of Lady A's "Champagne Night" in 2021.
• "Glad You Exist" struck a chord during the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming a viral anthem of gratitude as people shared videos celebrating the loved ones they cherished most. The song's reach extended across all kinds of relationships: romantic partners, parents and children, best friends, even patients and their healthcare workers.
  
  "It gave people a voice," Dan Mooney explained to Billboard. "A lot of times, especially for guys, it's hard to find the right words. This song gave them something to say."
  
  The outpouring of stories amazed Mooney. "We saw military homecomings, parents posting about their kids - it was overwhelming," he recalled. "I'd scroll through maybe two videos and be an emotional wreck. It became so much bigger than us. You hope for that when you create something, but this song truly took on a life of its own. It captured a deeply human emotion, reminding us all that, no matter how hard things were, we were going through it together."