Shawn Mendes is addressing speculation about his sexuality, saying that it’s “felt like such an intrusion” because he’s “just figuring it out like everyone.”
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter spoke about the subject before performing unreleased track “The Mountain” during a concert at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater on Monday night. According to fan footage of the song, “The Mountain” seems to be inspired by rumors around Mendes’ sexuality. “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,” he sings.
“Since I was really young, there’s been this thing about my sexuality and people have been talking about it for so long,” Mendes said in video captured by fans. “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.”
Mendes continued 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.”
Of “The Mountain,” Mendes said that “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 had previously addressed the speculation in 2016, when he was 17 years old. In a video posted on Snapchat, he said: “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.”
Mendes’ new album, “Shawn,” is set for release on Nov. 15.
