Shawn Mendes appeared to respond to the gay rumors about him in a preview performance of his upcoming song The Mountain.
Although the official track has not yet been released, the 26-year-old played the number for his fans at a recent concert date.
‘Some days, I have a change of heart. You can say what you need to say,’ he sang, in video footage that a fan has posted to TikTok.
‘You can say I’m too young. You can I’m too old. You can say I like girls or boys,’ he continued to a round of applause. ‘Whatever fits your mold.’
Although he has been the object of wild speculation about his sexuality, Shawn has only ever publicly dated women, such as Camila Cabello.
Shawn Mendes appeared to respond to the gay rumors about him in a preview performance of his upcoming song The Mountain; pictured in Rio De Janeiro last month
Shawn previously flatly denied that he was gay in a Snapchat message to his fans in 2016, while urging them to concentrate on his work.
‘So 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,”‘ he said.
‘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.’
Recently, Sabrina Carpenter hit the headlines for her single Taste, a acid-tongued song that is rumored to be aimed at Shawn and Camila.
Sabrina was briefly linked to Shawn in 2023, during one of the gaps in his long-running on-off relationship with Camila.
Shawn and Camila publicly got back together not long after his dating rumors with Sabrina, but have since broken up yet again.
Sabrina’s Taste lyrics are addressed to the woman his ex has reignited his old romance with, and her message to her love rival is scathing.
‘I heard you’re back together and if that’s true, you’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you,’ she taunts the other woman in the chorus.
Although the official track has not yet been released, the 26-year-old played the number for his fans at a recent concert date; pictured in his Why, Why, Why music video
Although he has been the object of wild speculation about his sexuality, Shawn has only ever publicly dated women, such as Camila Cabello; the pair are pictured at the 2021 Met Gala
Sabrina Carpenter (pictured onstage in New York last month) was briefly linked to Shawn in 2023, during one of the gaps in his long-running on-off relationship with Camila
Sabrina also reveals that she raided her ex’s wardrobe before she broke up, so that half his clothes are gone and now ‘My body’s where they’re at.’
She witheringly sounds off the on-again girlfriend: ‘Now I’m gone, but you’re still layin’ next to me, one degree of separation.’
Sabrina even gives herself credit for her old beau’s sense of humor, noting: ‘Hе’s funny, now all his jokes hit different. Guеss who he learned that from?’
Shawn and Camila went public as a couple over the summer of 2019 and broke up in 2021, then briefly reunited last year only to break up after six weeks.
This summer Shawn released his song Why, Why, Why about a pregnancy scare that ‘shook me to my core’ – though he declined to name the woman involved.
‘I thought I was about to be a father – shook me to the core. I’m still a kid,’ he sings in the bridge. ‘Sometimes I still cry out for my mother.’
Earlier on the song, he confesses the regrets he still harbors about the end of a relationship with a woman he never identifies by name.
‘Sweatin’ through the sheets, shakin’ in bed, visions of her naked in my head, but I went off and chose myself instead. Why, why, why? Ease my mind,’ he croons.