Shawn Mendes has clearly heard the constant buzz of whispers about his sexuality over the years and on Monday (Oct. 28) the singer addressed the elephant in the room during a quiet moment on his For Friends and Family tour at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver.
“I thought about this for a minute today, if I was gonna say something tonight at this part in the set,” Mendes told the crowd while seated on a stool noodling around on his acoustic guitar as seen in a fan’s TikTok video. After the crowd repeatedly shouted “We love you!,” Mendes, 26, continued by describing what it’s been like to grow up in the spotlight.
“I was really young when I started. I was 15 years old… The truth is that I didn’t get to do a lot of 15-year-old things and discover parts of myself that you do at 15,” he explained about going from being a high schooler to traveling the world. “Since I was really young there’s this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it so long. I think it’s kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it’s so hard to just put into boxes.”
Mendes has kept his dating life pretty private over the past decade, and though he’s been linked with a few other fellow stars, his most high-profile romance was his two-year relationship with Camila Cabello, which inspired a number of his songs, including “Summer of Love” and “Wonder” and their hit 2019 duet, “Señorita.”
“It always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover it,” he told the crowd about writing the confessional new song “The Mountain,” which tackles the persistent rumors about his sexuality head-on with the lyrics: “You can say I’m too young/ You can say I’m too old/ You can say I like girls or boys/ Whatever fits your mold.”
“Writing this song felt really important to me because it felt like a moment where I could address it in a way that felt close to my heart. I guess I’m just speaking freely now because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and just kind of be in my truth. The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone,” Mendes said to another round of supportive cheers. “I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times. And it feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that. And I’m trying to be really brave and just allow myself to be a human and feel things… And that’s all I really want to say about that for now.”
He then launched into the “You can say I’m too young” verse of “The Mountain,” which is slated for inclusion on the singer’s upcoming fifth studio album, Shawn, which is due out on Nov. 15.
Back in 2019, Mendes told The Guardian that the persistent whispers and speculation about his sexuality was “hurtful… I get mad when people assume things about me because I imagine the people who don’t have the support system I have and how that must affect them.” He said then that the rumors not only hurt him, but also the members of the LGBTQ community who admire him. “That was why I was so angry, and you can see I still get riled up, because I don’t think people understand that when you come at me about something that’s stupid you hurt so many other people,” he said. “They might not be speaking, but they’re listening.”
Mendes discussed the issue in that interview in the wake of a 2018 Rolling Stone cover story in which he addressed the talk head-on, saying, “I feel like I need to go be seen with someone — like a girl — in public, to prove to people that I’m not gay… Even though in my heart I know that it’s not a bad thing. There’s still a piece of me that thinks that. And I hate that side of me.” He later criticized both stories for not painting the full picture of who he is.
