Shawn Mendes gets candid about his sexuality: ‘I’m just figuring it out’

Shawn Mendes has opened up about his sexuality, sharing that he’s “figuring it out”.

The 26-year-old singer made the comments during an intimate concert in Colorado in support of his upcoming album, Shawn, with his speech captured by fans and later uploaded to social media.

“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 said on stage.

“Since I was really young there’s been this thing since my sexuality. People have been talking about it for 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.”

“I’m trying to be really brave and allow myself to be a human” – Shawn Mendes

The ‘Stitches’ singer added: “It 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”.

Mendes explained that he wrote a song called ‘The Mountain’ as it was a way he could address the speculation that felt close to his heart.

“I guess I’m just speaking freely now because I want to be able to be closer to everyone and be in my truth,” he said during a performance of the track.

“The real truth about my life and my sexuality is, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times,” he continued. “And it feels really scary as we live in a society that has a lot to say about that. And I’m trying to be really brave and allow myself to be a human and feel things.”

Throughout his career, Mendes, who previously dated fellow singer Camilla Cabello, has faced immense and intrusive speculation about his sexual orientation.

The ‘In My Blood’ singer previously denied the rumours that he was gay in a post on Snapchat, and later expressed his frustrations about the focus on his sexuality in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone.

“I thought, ‘You fucking guys are so lucky I’m not actually gay and terrified of coming out,’” he told the publication at the time. “That’s something that kills people. That’s how sensitive it is. Do you like the songs? Do you like me? Who cares if I’m gay?”

In the lyrics to ‘The Mountain’, Mendes appears to address the speculation directly.

“You can say I’m too young. You can say I’m too old. You can say I like girls or boys, whatеver fits your mould,” he sings at one point.

The song is taken from his upcoming fifth album Shawn, which released on 15 November.

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