Shawn Mendes is Peak Canadian: To be a nice person is the best thing in the world
Shawn Mendes is a treat. He’s a Canadian snack. He’s SO pretty, you guys. I know he’s way too young for me (he’s 20) and way too confused about life in general, but still… I like to look at him. Mendes sat down for another painfully self-aware interview, this time with the Guardian. The topics are the same as always – how he actually spends hours reading tweets and comments about himself online, how polite and generous he is to fans, how he is not gay but worried that people might think he is, but not in a bad or homophobic way. It’s a lot. I feel like this kid needs a break, but instead he’s too polite and Canadian to actually say “I’m out of here for the next six months.” Anyway, Shawn covered the Observer Magazine (the Guardian’s weekend mag) and they called him the new “Prince of Pop.” They compared him to Justin Bieber, only they hyped Mendes up to be better than Bieber. LOL. Anyway, you can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
His Calvin Klein underwear modeling gig: It was “a goal of mine at the top of 2018. As much as it’s a stepping stone for me to play a stadium, it’s a huge moment for me to step in front of a camera and take my shirt off. I don’t see one being less meaningful than the other.” The air is thick with earnestness as we sit down for lunch in the hotel restaurant. I blurt out a question about whether he had to wear extra padding. “No,” he says, eyebrow raised. “They’re really good underwear.”
On the social media reaction to his Calvin Klein ads: “The last 48 hours have been so consuming, just reading what people are saying about me [on social media],” he sighs. Do you have to read it? “No, but there’s something about being human that makes you. I’m scared of social media and how much it affects me. It’s literally become infused with who I am.”
He’s trying to relax about social media comments but: “I don’t think of myself as conceited, but I definitely spend a lot of time reading about myself.”
His three rules: Mendes famously has three daily rules – going to the gym, two vocal lessons and never saying no to a selfie with a fan. He’s managed the first two so far and “took about 200 selfies yesterday… The more open the world is getting, the more people are craving real. I don’t think people want to see a made-up person. [In the past] there’s been a lot of dressing up, and I still think that stuff is amazing – like I’ll wear a sleeveless top – but at the end of it, when it comes down to you, I think it’s about being authentic.”
His success: “This life is more real to me than anything. If I were to walk down the street and no one recognised me, I’d feel something was wrong. When I was really young [fame] morphed who I was. If it was to become normal, it would feel un-normal to me…. A couple of times I’ve worried about [going the way of Britney], too, but outside of all this I live a really normal life. You have to make an effort to carry your own bags, drive your own car and not be afraid of the public. I don’t blame people at all who stay inside. I understand how it could be terrifying to go to a restaurant and eat because you’re scared someone’s going to take a photo of you.”
The rumors about his sexuality: “For me it’s hurtful. I get mad when people assume things about me because I imagine the people who don’t have the support system I have and how that must affect them….That was why I was so angry, and you can see I still get riled up, because I don’t think people understand that when you come at me about something that’s stupid you hurt so many other people. They might not be speaking, but they’re listening.”
Whether he’s bored with his image as an emotionally needy mess/Nice Guy: “Yeah, I am! It sounds so stupid – to be a nice person is the best thing in the world – but, yeah, I’m 20 and I just want to have fun. What I don’t want to do is live the rest of my life thinking, ‘I wouldn’t do that because I’m known as Prince Charming.’ The second that someone corners you into a personality, you don’t want to be that person any more.”
Just my opinion: we need to make a bigger deal about how he’s Canadian. He’s like all of the positive stereotypes about Canadians mixed into one adorable, lanky package with great hair. He’s super-earnest, he’s painfully honest, he’s just as polite as can be and his version of doing something “bad” is “smoking a little weed.” But there’s one way in which he’s not Canadian enough for Canadians: according to Justin Bieber, Mendes isn’t much of an ice hockey player.
Justin Bieber really pressed about Shawn Mendes being called the prince of pop 😭 pic.twitter.com/D3aQhBFoyP
— Shoeb is a miya-ne (@memoirsofswift) April 8, 2019
That’s like the biggest Canadian burn, right? LOL.
Covers courtesy of The Observer.
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