Shawn Mendes
Shawn Mendes is the Canadian pop phenomenon who went from posting guitar covers on Vine as a teenager to selling out arenas worldwide, and the internet never stops asking about his love life.
Who is Shawn Mendes?
Shawn Peter Raul Mendes was born on August 8, 1998, in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. He taught himself to play guitar via YouTube tutorials and began posting six-second covers on Vine in 2013, racking up millions of followers before he’d finished high school. Island Records signed him shortly after, making him one of the first artists to be discovered almost entirely through social media.
His self-titled debut album (2016) and follow-ups Illuminate (2016) and Shawn Mendes (2018) each debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, a feat only a handful of artists have achieved before the age of 20. Hits like “Stitches,” “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back,” “In My Blood,” and “Señorita” (with Camila Cabello) have collectively racked up billions of streams. He’s also a four-time Grammy nominee.
Beyond the music, Mendes became a tabloid fixture, partly because of his friendship and brief creative rivalry with Justin Bieber (both are Canadian pop stars managed in overlapping industry circles), and partly because of his very public on-and-off relationship with Camila Cabello. That relationship, and the intense speculation around his personal life generally, drives a massive share of his search traffic.
He stepped back from touring in 2022 to prioritize his mental health, a move he was open about publicly, and has been selective about releases since then. His return to music and public life has kept fans and casual observers constantly refreshing search engines for updates.