Shawn Mendes is peeling back the layers of his journey with identity and self-discovery like never before. In a refreshingly open moment during his For Friends and Family Tour concert at Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the 26-year-old singer shared some deeply personal reflections on his sexuality, a topic he’s faced intense scrutiny over since his teens.
In his intro to The Mountain, a new song that addresses his journey, Shawn looked back on his career’s start at 15, when he was thrust into the spotlight before fully understanding parts of himself: “I was really young when I started. I was 15 years old,” Shawn admitted. “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.”
Mendes’s career has seen a whirlwind of success from hit singles to sold-out tours, but he’s also been followed by relentless curiosity—and rumors—about his sexuality. Addressing the crowd, he reflected on the complexities of sexual identity, challenging the overly simplified labels that the public so often wants to apply. “Since I was really young, there’s this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it 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,” he explained.
Mendes emphasized how personal and private the journey has been for him and shared the unease he’s felt around public discussions. “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 it,” he said. For Shawn, The Mountain became an avenue for him to speak his truth in a way that felt true to his heart. “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.”
While Mendes has shared bits of his journey over the years, his recent openness takes it to a new level, moving beyond past interviews where he described feeling pressure to conform to stereotypes or public expectations. Mendes continued, “The real truth about my life and 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.”
It’s a significant step for Mendes, who has acknowledged the pressure to fit a certain mold. Back in 2018, he admitted feeling compelled to be seen with women to “prove” he was interested in them—a troubling pressure that came simply from societal expectations. Then in 2019, he confessed the whispers about his orientation were “hurtful.” Through it all, Mendes has handled the scrutiny with grace, balancing his private journey with the demands of life in the public eye.
Fans and media have closely followed Mendes’s path, speculating about his relationships and often assuming certain labels that didn’t necessarily align with his truth. His response now? Living on his own terms, giving himself permission to discover, and growing into his authenticity. And with The Mountain now part of his repertoire, it’s clear he’s not just addressing these questions for fans—he’s giving himself space to feel and figure things out along the way.
