Originally appeared on E! Online
There’s nothing holding Shawn Mendes back from singing about the rumors.
During a recent performance in New York City, the 26-year-old debuted a new song called, “The Mountain” from his forthcoming album "Shawn." In a TikTok video shared by a fan on Oct. 19, Mendes performed the new single, which seemingly addresses the rumors of his sexuality among with other comments he’s seen about himself.
In the clip, Mendes strums his guitar and sings the lyrics, “I have a change of heart / you can say what you need to say / you can say I’m too young / you can say I’m too old/you can say I like girls or boys / whatever fits your mold.”
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As Mendes sings the lyric, the crowd begins to cheer in support.
E! News has reached out to Shawn’s rep regarding the lyrics but hasn’t heard back.
The song isn’t the first time the “Wonder” singer has addressed the chatter surrounding his sexuality. In 2020, the “Mercy” singer revealed that he had grown frustrated with the speculation.
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"Everyone's been calling me gay since I was 15 years old,” he explained on "Armchair Expert" in 2020. “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 s---.”
And Mendes further gave insight into how the unrelenting rumors weighed on him as he tried to set the record straight without seeming defensive.
"It was so, so frustrating for me because there were some people in my life that I was very very close to, who were gay and in the closet,” he continued. “And I felt like this real anger for those people. It's such a tricky thing. You want to say, 'I'm not gay but it'd be fine if I was gay — but also there's nothing wrong with being gay but I'm not.' You don't really know how to respond to the situation."
Since being thrust into the public eye as a teen, Mendes' romances have also been the subject of a lot of attention. This includes his on-again/off-again four-year relationship with Camila Cabello — which ended for good in 2023.
But amid their “brutal” breakup in the spotlight, the “Stitches” singer expressed how important it was for him and Cabello to keep friendship alive.
“Honestly, I think Camila and I have just done the best job at preserving our private little fire of love for each other," he explained on the Sept. 30 episode of The Jay Shetty<ital podcast, "because no matter how strong mentally you are when there are millions of people commenting on it, it’s so hard not to be affected by it and to be swayed by it and to be inspired by it."
