Shawn Mendes is speaking out about speculation surrounding his sexuality, stating that it has “felt like such an intrusion” as he’s “just figuring it out like everyone.”
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter addressed this topic before performing his unreleased song “The Mountain” during a concert at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Monday night. According to fan footage, the song appears to reflect the rumors about Mendes’ sexuality, featuring lyrics like, “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.”
Mendes explained, “Since I was really young, there’s been this thing about my sexuality and people have been talking about it for so long. And 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.”
He further shared that the speculation “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.”
Regarding “The Mountain,” Mendes stated, “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.”
He added, “The real truth about my life and about my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone and 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.”
Mendes previously addressed the speculation in 2016 when he was 17 years old, stating in a Snapchat video: “First of all, I’m not gay. 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.”
His new album, Shawn, is set to release on November 15.
