Shawn Mendes Says He Is "Figuring Out" His Sexuality
“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."
Shawn Mendes is opening up about his sexuality. On Oct. 28, Mendes performed his song “The Mountain” during his show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. The track explores the speculation around Mendes’ sexuality, with lyrics like, “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 mold.” Before playing the song, Mendes explained exactly what the song means to him.
“Writing the 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. And I guess I’m just speaking freely now, because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and just kind of be in my truth,” Mendes said in a video posted to TikTok on Oct. 29.
"Since I was really young, there's been this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long," he told the crowd. "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, "It 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.”
“The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. 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,” he continued. "I’m trying to be really brave and just allow myself to be a human and feel things. And that’s all I really want to say about that for now.”
Mendes previously shared insight into these rumors around his sexuality during a 2020 episode of the Armchair Expert podcast. “Everyone's been calling me gay since I was 15 years old,” he said at the time. “I'm not gay and I'm like, 'What does that mean?' I had these problems with the way my voice sounded. I'm like, 'How do I sit?' I'm always first to cross my legs and sit with a position of this feminine style and I really suffered with that sh*t.”
