Shawn Mendes has opened up to concert goers about his sexuality after years of speculation.
The 26-year-old star is gearing up for the release of his self-titled album on November 15 and has addressed long-standing rumours about his personal life – calling it "complex".
Fan-shared footage from a Colorado gig shows Shawn discussing the subject before performing a song.
He told the crowd: "Since I was really young, there's this thing about my sexuality, and 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.
"It always felt like [it's] such 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."
Shawn added: "The 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."
The heartthrob, who's sparked romance rumours with pop sensations Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter, has always been in the limelight over his private affairs.
As he dropped in his new tunes, the lyrics reveal: "You can say what you need to say. You can say I'm too young, say I'm too old, you can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mould. You can say I'm a dreamer, you can say I'm too far gone, but I've never been better so call it what you want."
Back in 2020, speaking to the Guardian, he slammed the speculation about his sexuality as "ignorant and insensitive".
He previously addressed fan gossip in 2016 on Snapchat, as reported by US Weekly: "I don't usually do this and bring up problems, but I was on YouTube just watching some of my interviews, and I was going down the comments and noticed a lot of people were saying that I gave them a 'gay vibe.'
"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."
Rolling Stone magazine revealed that the Brit Award nominee reached his limit, confessing to the publication, "I thought, 'You f***ing guys are so lucky I'm not actually gay and terrified of coming out'. That's something that kills people."
He subsequently challenged the status quo by asking, "Who cares if I'm gay? ".
English (US) ·