Shawn Mendes

• 1. Introduction

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  Shawn Mendes became known through a video that lasted six seconds. In 2013 he posted a cover of Justin Bieber's "As Long as You Love Me" on the app Vine. By the next day it had 10,000 likes and as many new followers. Mendes is a Canadian singer, songwriter and musician, born on the 8th of August 1998. Within a few years he was topping album charts while still a teenager. How does a short clip turn into a record deal? What does a young artist do with sudden attention? And what happens when a pop star slows down and turns toward folk?

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• 2. Before The Charts

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  Shawn Mendes was born in Toronto but raised in Pickering, Ontario. His mother, Karen, is English and works as a real estate agent. His father, Manuel, is a businessman from the Portuguese region of the Algarve who sells bar and restaurant supplies in Toronto. He has a younger sister named Aaliyah, and the family was religious. As a boy he played youth soccer with Pickering FC.

  At Pine Ridge Secondary School he played ice hockey and soccer, joined the glee club and took acting lessons. At one point he played Prince Charming. He graduated in June 2016 and had also auditioned for the Disney Channel in Toronto.

  In 2012, at the age of 13, Mendes learned guitar by watching YouTube tutorials. Less than a year later he was posting cover videos of his own. Within months his snippets of popular songs had earned millions of views. In November 2013 the artist manager Andrew Gertler discovered him online. Gertler brought him to Island Records in January 2014, where the label's A&R Ziggy Chareton also took notice.

  In April 2014 Mendes won Ryan Seacrest's "Best Cover Song" contest with his version of "Say Something" by A Great Big World. He officially signed to Island in May 2014. By August of that year he was the third most-followed musician on Vine. Before signing, he had toured with the Magcon Tour alongside other young Viners with large followings. He also opened on a nationwide tour for Austin Mahone. In 2014 he won a Teen Choice award for Webstar in Music.

  At the time, Mendes saw Justin Bieber as his model for how a career like this could go.

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• 3. Chart Records

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  On the 26th of June 2014, Mendes released his first single, "Life of the Party". It reached number 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending the 12th of July 2014. That made him the youngest artist to debut in the top 25. His first major-label EP arrived in July and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. It sold 48,000 copies in its first week.

  His debut album Handwritten came out on the 14th of April 2015. It opened at number one on the Billboard 200 with 119,000 equivalent album units, including 106,000 copies sold, and went platinum. Only five artists have ever debuted at number one before turning 18, and Mendes is one of them. The third single, "Stitches", reached number four on the Hot 100 and became his first US top 10. It later reached number one in the UK.

  Illuminate followed on the 23rd of September 2016. It opened at number one in the US with 145,000 equivalent album units and also topped the Canadian chart. "Treat You Better" was certified triple platinum. In November 2017 Mendes became the first artist to score three number-one songs on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart before turning 20. The chart had existed for more than 50 years.

  His self-titled third album was released on the 25th of May 2018. Its number-one debut in the US made him the third-youngest artist to collect three number-one albums. The lead single, "In My Blood", made him the first and only artist to have four Adult Pop number ones before turning 20.

  In 2019, "If I Can't Have You" debuted at number two on the Hot 100, his highest entry to that point. "Señorita", with Camila Cabello, also debuted at number two. On the 26th of August 2019 it reached number one, his first chart-topping single on the Hot 100. When Wonder was released on the 4th of December 2020, it debuted at number one in both the US and Canada. That made him the youngest male artist ever to top the Billboard 200 with four studio albums.

  Time listed him among its most influential teens in 2014-2015 and 2016, and among the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018. Billboard put him on top of its 21 Under 21 list in 2017 and again in 2018. He has won Juno Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards and SOCAN awards, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and one Brit Award.

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• 4. Stage And Screen

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  In 2015, Mendes opened North American dates of Taylor Swift's 1989 World Tour. A few months later he was headlining. His first world tour as a headliner began in March 2016 and sold out 38 shows in North America and Europe within minutes. In April 2017 his Illuminate World Tour filled arenas such as Los Angeles' Staples Center and London's The O2 Arena.

  Television came early too. On the 21st of January 2016 he made his acting debut in the third-season premiere of The CW's The 100. On the 3rd of December 2016 he appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. The live album Live at Madison Square Garden arrived that same month.

  In 2018 he performed at a televised concert honouring the 92nd birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. In June he spent a week on The Late Late Show with James Corden, singing one of his newer songs each night. In October, CMT Crossroads paired him with the Zac Brown Band, a country act. They performed nine songs together and covered Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror". The YouTube star Casey Neistat also directed a documentary about him, part of YouTube's Artist Spotlight Story series, published on the 28th of September 2018.

  Streaming gave him a larger screen. Netflix released the documentary Shawn Mendes: In Wonder on the 23rd of November 2020. Two days later came a concert film, Shawn Mendes: Live in Concert, built around his first performance at the Rogers Centre on the 6th of September 2019.

  In August 2021 it was announced that he would serve as an executive producer, through his banner Permanent Content, on Legendary's TV adaptation of Square Enix's video game Life Is Strange. Then came a stranger role. In Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, released by Columbia Pictures on the 7th of October 2022, Mendes voiced a crocodile who only sings and never talks. He wrote and performed an original song for the film, "Heartbeat", released on the 23rd of September 2022.

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• 5. Sound And Influences

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  Pop and folk-pop are the labels most often attached to Mendes. His list of main influences runs through John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars. His parents, though, filled his childhood with other sounds, including reggae, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Garth Brooks and country music.

  Each album drew on different sources. Mendes has said his second album was influenced by the work of Mayer. His third was inspired by Timberlake, Kings of Leon, Kanye West and Daniel Caesar.

  Critics have described the result in different ways. Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone wrote of "catchy acoustic folk-pop tunes". Joe Coscarelli of The New York Times said that his "soft, sometimes soulful pop-rock plays primarily to tweens and teenagers, but has also found traction on adult contemporary radio stations".

  Duets have been a steady part of his catalogue. With Camila Cabello he recorded "I Know What You Did Last Summer" in late 2015, long before "Señorita". He worked with Khalid on "Youth" and with Julia Michaels on "Like to Be You". In November 2020 he released "Monster" with Justin Bieber, which peaked at number eight on the Hot 100. In 2018 the DJ Zedd remixed "Lost in Japan", and the two performed it together at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles.

  In an interview with Clash, Mendes described his ambition. "I want to create anthems for people. I want to create anthems for big moments in their lives." He added that for him it is not only about the music he releases. In his words, "it's about the things you do while you're making the music."

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• 6. Brands And Fashion

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  In 2016, Mendes signed with Wilhelmina Models. In June 2017 he walked the runway at the Emporio Armani Spring 2018 show in Milan, wearing the Italian brand's new smartwatch, the EA Connected. A year later, in June 2018, he was named ambassador for Emporio Armani's entire Fall Winter 2018-2019 watch collection. In a later black-and-white advertisement for the brand's touchscreen smartwatches, he boxed to an instrumental version of "In My Blood".

  He also put his name on perfume. In August 2017 he launched his first fragrance, Shawn Mendes Signature, for women and men. A second, Shawn Signature II, followed in August 2018.

  In February 2019 he announced that he was the newest brand ambassador for Calvin Klein's #MyCalvins campaign. During the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, SmileDirectClub released an advertisement about a campaign with Mendes. Some of the proceeds were pledged to organizations working on children's health and emotional well-being.

  Canadian partners followed in 2019. In August he announced a partnership with the food chain Tim Hortons, appearing in a commercial and on beverage cups. In September came a partnership with Roots Canada.

  In February 2023, the American jeweler David Yurman unveiled him as a brand ambassador. He appeared alongside the actress Scarlett Johansson in the brand's 2023 campaign, called "Nature's Artistry". By June of that year, the partnership had produced a woven hemp bracelet that Mendes helped design for his own foundation.

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• 7. Giving Back

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  In 2014, Mendes and DoSomething.org launched a campaign called "Notes from Shawn". Fans were encouraged to write positive notes and leave them in unexpected places. The idea came from the lyrics of his first single, and it addressed low self-esteem, depression and awareness of self-harm. The campaign returned in 2015 and again in 2016. A partnership with BlendApp aimed to raise up to $25,000, with $1 raised for every signup and positive message shared.

  He also raised $25,000 for Pencils of Promise, a non-profit that builds schools, to fund a school in Ghana. After the earthquake in Mexico City in September 2017, he created the Mexico Earthquake Relief Fund with the American Red Cross and donated $100,000.

  In September 2018 he performed at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, New York City, alongside Janelle Monáe, John Legend and Janet Jackson. He used the stage to raise awareness of girls' access to education. Beforehand, he thanked Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau online for leading the Leave No Girl Behind initiative. Trudeau replied, "The more people we have fighting for girls' education, the better! Let's talk."

  That October, Mendes and the producer Teddy Geiger released a cover of Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure". Proceeds went to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which fights HIV/AIDS and was founded by Queen's band members after Freddie Mercury's death. Queen's manager, Jim Beach, thanked him publicly.

  In August 2019 Mendes announced the Shawn Mendes Foundation. In January 2020 he donated an undisclosed sum to bushfire relief in Australia. In March 2020 the foundation gave $175,000 to Toronto's SickKids Foundation for COVID-19 relief. In December 2020 it announced Wonder Grants, created with Google, to support young creatives and changemakers. In January 2021 Chipotle pledged $1 to the foundation for every Shawn Mendes Bowl sold. It was the first time the chain had launched a philanthropic entrée.

  On the 22nd of April 2021 he hosted a NASA video conference with the crew of Expedition 65 aboard the International Space Station, answering student questions on Earth Day topics. In May 2021 he donated $50,000 through Give India during the pandemic surge there. For his Wonder tour, he planned to donate one dollar per North American ticket to Wonder Grants and award one youth changemaker in every city.

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• 8. Anxiety And Reinvention

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  Mendes first disclosed his struggles with anxiety in his song "In My Blood". He has said he spoke to a therapist a couple of times, and he describes therapy broadly. For him it can mean listening to music, running on a treadmill or going to dinner with friends. He also recalled that he had been closing himself off from everybody. In his words, "I made a conscious effort to be more connected to the people in my life."

  The pressure showed up on the road. Wonder: The World Tour began on the 14th of March 2022 at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen. Mendes performed seven shows before postponing for three weeks because of his mental health. He then canceled the remaining dates, saying he would keep making music and hoped to tour again.

  In March 2024 he announced his first solo live performance since the cancellation. During his hiatus he had made surprise guest appearances with Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan and Niall Horan. He headlined the Rock in Rio festival by himself on the 22nd of September 2024.

  On the 31st of July 2024 he named his fifth album Shawn. Its release was first set for the 18th of October and later postponed to the 15th of November. Singles included "Why Why Why", "Isn't That Enough", "Nobody Knows" and "Heart of Gold". The album explored folk music and earned positive reviews. It was less commercially successful than his earlier albums.

  To promote it, he played theatre shows of 2,000 to 3,000 people in the places where he had recorded the album. They began in Woodstock, New York, on the 8th of August 2024 and ended in Puerto Rico on the 8th of April 2025. A concert film followed. In May 2025 he announced the On the Road Again Tour, which opened in Kosovo on the 2nd of August 2025 and concluded on the 17th of October.

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