Shawn Mendes

Raised in Pickering, Toronto, Shawn Mendes learned to play guitar by watching YouTube videos and started singing in his bedroom, covering all the artists he loved. In 2013, he began posting six-second videos on the social app Vine of songs he did by Katy Perry, One Direction, Ed Sheeran and more that caught the attention of people across the globe, many of whom hyped him as the new Justin Bieber.

With such a huge online following, Mendes was signed to Island Records and then broke records on the iTunes charts when he released Life Of The Party, the lead single from his eponymous debut EP, in 2014. Mendes was on the fast track to bridging the gap between being a social media sensation and becoming a bona fide pop star.

His first full-length album Handwritten arrived in 2015. Not only did it debut at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart, but it also contained the track Stitches, which would earn Mendes his first No.1 on the UK singles chart. After scoring two more hits from that album – I Know What You Did Last Summer and Something Big – he won several MTV Europe Music Awards (including one for Best New Act) plus opened a number of shows for Taylor Swift during her 1989 World Tour.

Mendes’ next two releases, 2016’s Illuminate and 2018’s Shawn Mendes – both peaked at No.3 on the UK albums chart and saw him put a couple of world tours headlining arenas under his own belt.

In 2019, Mendes provided vocals for a remixed version of Swift’s song Lover as well as released Señorita, his second collaborative single with Camila Cabello – and the pair gave a temperature-raising performance of it at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards and American Music Awards.

His 2020 album Wonder spawned the top 10 track Monster, a collaboration with Bieber, and was followed by the Netflix documentary In Wonder, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at Mendes’ life traveling the world on tour as well as spending time at home with his family and girlfriend Cabello.

In 2021, he teamed up with Colombian artist Camilo on a remix of his song Kesi and with Puerto Rican artist Tainy for the smash hit single Summer Of Love. Mendes also announced a UK leg for his Wonder: The World Tour with shows in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield and Manchester set for April and May 2022.