Shawn Mendes Candid Quotes About Being Famous

He may wonder about love, but one thing Shawn Mendes knows something about is being famous! Following his quick rise to the spotlight after gaining followers on the now-defunct Vine app, the Canadian crooner started releasing bop after bop which led to four studio albums and subsequent headlining tours at a young age. Due to his status as an A-lister, Shawn has spoken publicly about how living in the public eye has influenced his music.

Following the release of his collaboration with Justin Bieber, titled “Monster,” Shawn spoke about writing the single when going through a rough patch. “I was actually feeling a lot of [pressure about] who I was in a relationship with and [people] wanting to push me into this box,” he recalled while chatting with Entertainment Tonight in December 2020, noting that he had written the song years prior.

“Three years later, I actually listen back to it and it makes me think of every single person who has Instagram or Twitter and every single person who is checking their Instagram every five minutes to see if people approve of the last thing they posted,” Shawn also told ET. “It’s tough, because there is this [societal] pressure that everyone has and is putting on each other, and something that is so true and I don’t think is talked about enough is that the human condition is messy.”

While Shawn has had tons of famous mentors over the years, Liam Payne went out of his way in 2018 to ensure that the “In My Blood” singer was coping with his level of fame.

“With the way this lifestyle is, we don’t help each other and there’s just not much point to it,” Liam shared on MTV’s TRL at the time. “I went and saw Shawn Mendes recently when I was at an awards show. I think he’s doing fantastic, but I could hear the slightest bit of sorrow in a recent song he wrote, and I wanted to make sure he was all good.”

The former One Direction member noted that Shawn was “incredible” but “wanted to offer, ‘If you ever have a problem or something’s going on, call me and we can have a chat about it.’”

“He’s got his head screwed on and he’s gone about it the right way,” Liam added when discussing the fellow musician. “Now [that] he’s known all over the world, it’s a bit of a transformation.”

Scroll through our gallery to read Shawn’s most candid quotes about life in the public eye.

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A Constant Struggle

“I still struggle with trying to fit into the shoes of who I believe ‘Shawn Mendes’ should be,” he told Wonderland magazine in June 2021. “At some point along the line, my expectations and my standard of who I should be, the music I should make, and the way I should look, became so high that no matter what I did and no matter how hard I was trying with my music, I couldn’t fit those shoes.”

Opening Up

“I definitely felt it was important to share the internal struggle that was happening even during the highest peaks of my career,” Shawn told Vogue in June 2021. “I don’t think many people know what’s going on in an artist’s mind when they step on stage at the Grammys, for example, but I wanted to share that for me it was complete insecurity. How meditation really helped me find my reason for wanting to do this for a living was really important to share also.”

Growing Up in the Spotlight

“I started playing music in front of an audience of the world at 15 years old. I was on the road for seven years straight and I had a lot of success, a lot of big songs, a lot of reasons for people to praise me and to think I was great, and a lot of reasons for me to think I was great,” Shawn shared with The Guardian in December 2020. “All of that praise and all that success was turning into a big monster that was eating my self-confidence because, if anybody said they didn’t like my music, all of a sudden I felt I was worth nothing. And that’s what happens when you connect who you are with what you do.”

Discussing ‘Monster’

“As babies, we fall and learn — that is how we don’t do something again and that is how we grow,” Shawn told ET when talking about the track that details the hardships of fame. “I think as adults — I don’t know who decided that we are not allowed to keep learning or to fall … We got to be OK with being messy and falling, and if somebody falls, don’t push them down, don’t put your foot on top of them, help them up and teach them. I think that’s the way that culture can really be there for each other and I think it is a beautiful thing for that reason.”

Being Vulnerable

“To have to be someone you’re not, to the whole world, is horrible. And I know how difficult it is to be authentic,” he told British GQ in November 2020. “[But] I can speak to you clearly because I’m not dancing around my real self. I’m just being me with you. And that’s beauty. And that’s success.”

Getting RealShawn Mendes’ Most Candid Quotes About Being Famous: Talks Pressure of Life in the Spotlight

A Constant Struggle

Opening Up

Growing Up in the Spotlight

Being Famous

Discussing ‘Monster’

Being Vulnerable

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