Shawn Peter Raul Mendes is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and model. He gained a following in 2013, posting song covers on the video-sharing application Vine. He has released three studio albums, headlined three world tours, and received several awards. In 2017, Mendes became the first artist to land three number one singles on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
In 2018, he became the first artist to achieve four number one singles on the Adult Pop Songs chart before the age of 20. Among his accolades, Mendes has won 13 SOCAN awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards, eight Juno Awards, eight iHeartRadio MMVAs, two American Music Awards, and received two Grammy Award nominations.
Some of the best quotes from Shawn Mendes are listed below.
- “A lot of people who are ‘social media’ stars aren’t considered to be ‘real’ stars, and people underestimate the amount of work it takes to edit and upload a video every single day and document your life like that.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Absolutely, I never stop working on new music.” – Shawn Mendes
- “As I’m growing, so is my music.” – Shawn Mendes
- “As soon as I get time, I really wanna dig down and do some acting.” – Shawn Mendes
- “At 13, I loved how so many of my peers sang and played acoustic guitar, so I started recording videos with covers of famous songs and posting them online.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Being 15, I feel like people want me to go down the Justin Bieber, Cody Simpson sort of genre.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Being a sex symbol isn’t cool unless you’re in love with a girl, and she calls you a sex symbol.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Chance The Rapper is just unreal: he’s changing rap and really creating this whole amazing new style.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Definitely, it’s hard being a young artist and being taken seriously.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Did people care about how a singer sounded live back in the day? I don’t really feel like they did. Not everything was being filmed. Today, one huge mess-up, and millions are seeing it. There’s a lot more on the line nowadays. We’re so cautious and scared of messing up. It adds a lot of stress to a career.” – Shawn Mendes
- “During crazy times, I just hold back. People are so quick to jump on something or rip it apart.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Ed Sheeran wrote his songs, so I wanted to write my own songs.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Every time I write a song my approach changes.” – Shawn Mendes
- “First of all, I’m not gay. Second of all, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or if I wasn’t.” – Shawn Mendes
- “From 15 to 18, everybody is a different person. Every six months, I have a whole new outlook on life.” – Shawn Mendes
- “From day 1, Justin Timberlake has been a huge inspiration for me.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Growing up in a suburban home, the world seems so massive to you. It seems like cities are so big and so far away, and there’s so much in them. So your imagination runs wild, instead of when you are born in the middle of Manhattan, you’d know, like, that this is the biggest city.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Honestly, the more things start to get bigger and better, the more I am just inspired to work harder and put my music out there and make better music and keep everything going.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I always think, what type of 11th grader would I be if I was still at school? Or if I was home all the time, would I be at the gym 24/7? Would I be as good at guitar? I know I wouldn’t be as mature as I am.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I believe vitamin C can fix everything.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I can see why people change. You get complimented all the time, driven around in a black SUV – your life is crazy. But that’s your career, not you.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I can’t believe how fast things have happened, and I’m just so honored that people are able to look to me as a leader.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I carry around this little lion named Leo, which I’ve had for as long as I can remember.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I come up with more ideas when I’m on the road, but I don’t get to finish them. I don’t get to fully flush them out because I’m so busy on the road. I’m very all over the place, but I’m definitely most creative when I’m out here.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I don’t like age barriers. I don’t like when people treat you differently when they find out how old you are.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I don’t read much, I don’t have the time. But I’m not at all happy about that; I want to read more. It’s a promise I made to myself. I think it’s important.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I don’t really like to say, ‘This is where I’ll be in five years,’ because I truly have no idea.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I don’t really look into the past too much.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I don’t want to get on stage and just be another act.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I don’t want to just be a teenage star. I want to be known by parents, and I want them to go, ‘Oh I love that song; he’s really good for his age. My daughter loves him, but I love him, too.’” – Shawn Mendes
- “I feel like every time I write a song, it feels like the first time I wrote a song. It’s just as hard; it doesn’t get easier, but that’s why I love it: because it’s a challenge every time. I also feel like I’m learning new ways.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I feel like every time I write a song, it feels like the first time I wrote a song. It’s just as hard. It doesn’t get easier, but that’s why I love it: because it’s a challenge every time.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I feel pressure because I feel like I have a lot of parents in my life; I have a lot of people who are scared that I’m going to do something wrong.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I feel very comfortable with the U.K. tone and humour and laid-back attitude.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I felt like there were so many talented people who should be getting what I have.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I give big ups to people who are very big on social media, whether they’re doing vlogs or whatever. It takes a lot of effort.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I have a song called ‘I Don’t Even Know Your Name’ which I think is going to be well liked across the board.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I have a thing where if I’m not in control, I feel the whole world is about to collapse.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I have songs about growing up, about ex-relationships – ex-relationship, I should say.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I haven’t really found the right person. That sounds like an older person thing to say, but I’m too busy and – not in a bad way – don’t want to waste my time.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I like dancers. I have a thing for girls who dance.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I like funny girls.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I like to think of ‘Illuminate’ as the mature version of the previous one, a year older, more experience.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I love acting. I would really love to act.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I love Australia; it was a really, really nice experience for me. It’s such a beautiful place. The people are beautiful – like, really beautiful – and they are beautiful in terms of their personalities. It’s a great place to be. It’s like you are in a little bit of a dream world.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I love Milan, and I’m not just saying that. It’s a city that gives me a great sense of euphoria. I can’t explain why, but I feel a special energy there.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I loved entertainment and acting, performing. I just liked the stage and having the spotlight and stuff.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I loved Nashville. I was amazed by the whole place.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I picture myself now, and I picture myself in 30 years, and I’ll probably be the same. I’ll still think I’m not the greatest singer I can be.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I promise you, if you look at YouTube and see some of my first covers, you will hear that I don’t sound good. But I was so obsessed with it and wanted so much to be good at it that I forced myself to figure out what sounds right and what sounds wrong.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I really like brunettes.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I really love going back home. I think going back to a nice, relaxed little town is the best way to do it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I really love listening to Hozier. He’s great.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I really think the best fragrances are ones you can wear every day.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I started watching YouTube videos and singing, and it became something that I was obsessed with.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think anyone can do anything they dream of if they put their mind to it and put in the work.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think I was just bored one summer afternoon, and I decided to post a little video of me singing and playing guitar out of tune.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think if you’re creating music, and you love the song, holding it back is just doing it an injustice.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think it’s not about what you say; it’s about what you don’t say.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think my all time favourite song would be between ‘Slow Dancing in a Burning Room’ and ‘Dreaming with a Broken Heart’ by John Mayer.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think the world is becoming a place where younger and younger people can do great things, and I just hope I can inspire other young people to do the same.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think when I do things outside of music, I am always thinking of different things that are eventually one way or another going to come back to my music. I have to make sure it is all cohesive, as that’s important to me as an artist and a person.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think when you have raw emotion in a song, it makes it great.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I think, as a musician and person, Justin Timberlake is someone I’ve always looked up to.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I used to write stories. Handwriting stories in school were a big deal for me. That’s kind of what I did.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I want to graduate high school, so it’s very important to me, and I’ll be focusing hard on that as well.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I wanted to be an actor, like, so, so bad. I took acting classes, I auditioned for Disney, and then I realized how nervous I got with remembering lines.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I was an average student. I wasn’t any standout. I remember when people started to know who I was and the label offers, people started to get a little weird and be weird around me.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I was one of those kids who was just always on the Internet, always on YouTube, so it was easy for me to do it. It’s not work. It’s just fun.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I was super-obsessed with cover videos. When I was, like, 10, I would come home from school and watch them from 4 o’clock until 8 o’clock every night. I was so intrigued that people took these super-popular songs and did them their own way.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I work out every day.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I work so hard to make that sure I’m successful. If you’re positive and really excited and enthusiastic about what you’re doing, it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen big time.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I would type in things like, ‘How to play beginner songs on guitar,’ and one of the first I learnt was ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ by Train. I taught myself these chords I didn’t know the name of and slowly started to get the hang. I was obsessed with it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’d be happy if anyone wore my fragrance. They don’t have to be famous.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’d love to work with Bruno Mars and Ryan Tedder.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’d rather sleep on the bus than in the hotel because I sleep way better on tour buses.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’d say some of my earliest scent memories are from home – just things that were around my house, and my mom’s cooking.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’d say the best scents are ones that don’t overtake a room. I love things that remind me of the outdoors and home.” – Shawn Mendes
- “If I don’t have cereal on the bus, I’m going to be really upset.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’ll never feel like I’ve made it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m 100 per cent involved in everything that happens with my name, and I think if you’re not, then there’s something wrong.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m a very spontaneous person. When I see something that might be fun or different, I will try it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m all over the place with muffins. Carrots are great. Banana, chocolate chip, they rock, too.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m always upset about not doing things as good as I think I could have because I care.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m always wanting to spread as much positivity as possible, so I really try to keep that the case with my fans and with the campaigns that I do.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m just growing so quickly, so my songs are quickly changing on me. But it’s fine. I love them for what they are and what they were, to me.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m kind of still learning my voice and learning my style.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m not a rapper.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m not just writing songs that are narrating my life, but everyone else around my age because they’re super-relatable.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m not the best singer in the world; I’m just good at picking up what I want to sound like.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m proud to say I’m a role model for kids.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m still a little certain I’m a wizard.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m tortured because I care.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m tortured because I care. I’m always upset about not doing things as good as I think I could have because I care.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m very, very amateur, which is funny because I’m not in the amateur leagues.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’m writing all the time, really. It’s become a little bit of a problem when I go home. Sometimes I should really go out and hang out with my friends, but what happens is I get really inspired and then just go and mess around on the computer.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Island Records was the first record label to… acknowledge me. After that, quickly, Republic Records, and then Atlantic Records, Sony Records and Warner Bros. It was all the labels at once. It was absolutely insane, like, knowing that this many record labels were interested in me.” – Shawn Mendes
- “It takes a certain type of rapper for me to really get into the album.” – Shawn Mendes
- “It was incredible being on tour with Taylor Swift: she was the epitome of a professional, and she works so hard. For someone as successful as her to work that hard every night – truly inspirational.” – Shawn Mendes
- “It’s amazing having so many people care so much about what I’m doing.” – Shawn Mendes
- “It’s extremely important just to keep things positive and happy as much as we can… I think it’s important that singers, actors, or whatever use our voice to spread positive messages as much as we possibly can.” – Shawn Mendes
- “It’s hard for me to just say, ‘Wow, this is amazing – I’m famous. I’m living the dream.’ I sit there and think, ‘I’m scared – this can go away tomorrow.’ My dad always says that I’m a tortured soul because I’m never pleased; I never feel like I deserve what I’ve achieved.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’ve always been really tall and lanky.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’ve never had a scandal, but I don’t know if that’s so much because I’m perfect, or because people aren’t caring enough yet. Give it some time. I’ll probably be very upset, but it’s a part of the gig.” – Shawn Mendes
- “I’ve watched pretty much every Ed Sheeran video on You Tube that is possible to watch.” – Shawn Mendes
- “John Mayer would be my ultimate collaboration because he’s just the man. He has basically captured all I believe in with music.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Just the fact that a thousand people in front of me were ready to hear me sing was one of the best feelings I can think of.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Love is probably the strongest emotion that you can feel. It’s very natural – and I wouldn’t want to say easy – but natural and comfortable to write about, and there’s so many different forms of it, millions of layers – you could write forever about it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Manuka honey is magic.” – Shawn Mendes
- “’Mercy,’ I love conceptually because I feel like you can either think about it as if it were a girl – which it sounds like it could be about a girl – but I like to picture it as ‘pleading for mercy for my career’ type of thing.” – Shawn Mendes
- “My advice to anyone with a dream is to never stop pursuing it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “My first Vine I really just posted out of spontaneity.” – Shawn Mendes
- “My mom says I’m not allowed to move out, but I’m allowed. I said I have to FaceTime her every night to make dinner with her because I won’t be able to do it myself. So she said she’ll accept it if I do that.” – Shawn Mendes
- “No matter what, I’m trying to have fun and, depending on the mood, fun can be on a roller coaster and playing onstage, or fun can be sitting in a room with three of your best friends talking for two hours.” – Shawn Mendes
- “No matter where you play, a stadium or an arena, when you’re present on stage, it’s going to feel like a theater.” – Shawn Mendes
- “People made fun of my skinny legs.” – Shawn Mendes
- “People say to me, ‘What are you going to be doing in five years?’ The thing is, I don’t care! It’s what I’m doing today that matters.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Ryan Tedder is just a beast.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Singing kind of came out of nowhere.” – Shawn Mendes
- “So many of my songs are based on things that either happened to me or to someone I know, but there are also ones where I’ve written a made-up story. All of them are about very real emotions, and I just find different ways to express them.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Someone was like, ‘If you wanna be a celebrity, know that every girl you talk to is going to be your girlfriend.’ And I was like, ‘Fine. I accept that for getting to do what I love for the rest of my life.’” – Shawn Mendes
- “Sometimes I get more excited for shows that I know are going to be quieter because it gets me more inspired to be more of a showman and be more of an entertainer and forces me to work harder.” – Shawn Mendes
- “Sometimes when the song is right for that time period, it’s just kinda bad to let it wait, and then when you do release it eight months down the road, it’s not the same.” – Shawn Mendes
- “The first year I started hockey, I didn’t know how to skate, so I got on the ice with all of the hockey players, and we were doing drills where we had to go backwards in figure eights. And I could not skate, and I just kept falling on my butt, and it was very embarrassing.” – Shawn Mendes
- “The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality.” – Shawn Mendes
- “The people who are No. 1 are No. 1 for a reason.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There are times when I’m super-overwhelmed, and everything feels like it’s hitting me in the face at once, but I think what’s keeping me calm, and who I am by staying true to myself, is my whole family being so supportive and keeping me grounded. They treat me the exact same way they treated me years and years ago.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There are tons of women’s perfumes that I’ve smelt and been like, ‘I love that. I would totally wear that,’ and lots of women smell a lot of men’s cologne and think the same thing about that. I think there should be no reason to put gender on it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There have been artists who’ve sold out arenas one year, and the next they can’t fill a theatre. There’s always more to achieve.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There is such a hype and a big build up to me, and it’s very hard to meet those expectations. That’s been a big stress in my life.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There’s a lot more to success than just singing.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There’s nothing that scares me more than, like, being in the ocean by myself.” – Shawn Mendes
- “There’s so much negativity on social media, I don’t want to add to that.” – Shawn Mendes
- “To be honest, I’ve only been to one concert, and it was Aerosmith. Aerosmith and Slash.” – Shawn Mendes
- “What I love about my fragrance Signature is that it’s subtle and great to wear for any person at any time.” – Shawn Mendes
- “When I first started playing guitar, so many people told me I couldn’t do this or couldn’t do that. But I kept at it and ignored that.” – Shawn Mendes
- “When I put that first Vine out, I was just doing it for fun; there was no wanting to become an artist.” – Shawn Mendes
- “When you go on tour, you get so pumped up to make more music, learn more about yourself, and grow more musically. It always happens.” – Shawn Mendes
- “With love, there are so many layers to it that you can write all day about it. It’s not just heartbreak or falling in love; there’s so many different ways to look at it.” – Shawn Mendes
- “You can’t get too comfortable and relax, because your world can flip overnight.” – Shawn Mendes
- “You have to be careful not to make music something you don’t want to do. Which happens. I’ve gotten off the road and been like, ‘I hate it. I hate singing, I hate playing guitar.’ Six days later, I’m in my bedroom singing at the top of my lungs because I love it so much.” – Shawn Mendes
- “You have to work the crowd.” – Shawn Mendes
- “You just have to play it cool. You don’t want everyone to know you’re an amateur.” – Shawn Mendes
- “You look back at people like Elvis and The Beatles and still get their music because it’s timeless. That’s what I want.” – Shawn Mendes
My advise to anyone with a dream is to never stop pursuing it- Shawn Mendes