Pop singer Shawn Mendes is addressing rumors about his sexuality again, but this time, it’s through song!
On his current intimate-theater-only tour, the 26-year-old songwriter is previewing tracks from his upcoming album, Shawn. And fans were especially gagged to hear one new lyric at the first show in Woodstock, NY.
In the forthcoming song titled “The Mountain,” Mendes sings: “Some days, I have a change of heart / You can say what you need to say / You can say I’m too young / You can I’m too old / You can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mold.”
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Per fan recordings of the performance, the line was met with rapturous applause.
Watch.
@theliyahrich THE YOU CAN SAY I LIKE GIRLS OR BOYS?? had me gagged. #shawnmendes #shawnmendesvideos #shawnmendesfan #nyc ♬ original sound – LIYAH.
The lyric is not a coming-out message by any means, but it fits into Mendes’ broader message of ignoring the haters and focusing on his peace.
(The song closes out with him crooning, “I’ve never been better, so call it what you want.”)
As he told fans at a recent show in Brooklyn, “The Mountain” was born from an era when speculation about whom he was dating and whether he was involved in a “cult” or taking care of himself felt overpowering.
“I have always prided myself off of not being too phased by what the media says,” he explained. “But the truth is that sometimes, it really pisses me off and it is what it is.”
With this new track, he saw a “good opportunity to, through song, kind of write back and write my own story and take control of what the story is about me.”
This isn’t the first time the “In My Blood” singer has addressed pervasive rumors about his sexuality, despite only having public relationships with women, including Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter.
In 2016, after noticing YouTube comments about his “gay vibe,” Mendes told Us Weekly that fans were missing the point.
“First of all, I’m not gay,” the then-17-year-old said. “Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or if I wasn’t. The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality.”
Later in 2020, he seemed to echo the same sentiment and the potential harm it could have for closeted LGBTQ+ people.
“There was such a desperation for me to come out as being gay, which is such a ridiculous thing,” he told The Guardian. “I got upset because I know people who are gay who haven’t come out, and I know the suffering they experience because of that. It’s just completely ignorant and insensitive of people to be on that sh*t.”
In this new era of his career, it appears that Mendes is content with letting the rumors go in one ear and out the other.
So far, the aesthetic for his upcoming self-titled fourth album, due out November 15, has been a lot of white tees, blue jeans, acoustic guitars, and shirtless pics. (His “rugged daddy era,” as gay social media star Alex Goldschmidt dubbed it.)
And we aren’t complaining!
In fact, it seems like Mendes is having fun with it. He even described the music video for promotional single “Nobody Knows” as a clip about “3 sweaty boys crying about love.”
We’re happy to see Mendes feel comfortable sharing his story on his own terms and having fun doing so.
After all — as John Mayer told the “Treat You Better” singer in a recent Interview Magazine cover story — he is one “beautiful boy.”
Check out more pics from Mendes’ new era on Instagram below.
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