Mendes << MEHN dehz >> , Shawn (1998-…), is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and musician. He gained international fame as a pop music star in the 2010’s while still a teenager. Mendes became the youngest person to have his first single, “Life of the Party” (2014), break into the top 25 on Billboard magazine’s “Hot 100” music chart. In 2018, Mendes became the first teenage artist to place four number-one hits on the Billboard “Adult Pop Songs” chart, with “Stitches” (2015), “Treat You Better” (2016), “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” (2017), and “In My Blood” (2018).
Shawn Peter Raul Mendes was born on Aug. 8, 1998, in Toronto , Ontario . He taught himself to play guitar and to sing by watching videos on the video-sharing website YouTube . He began posting videos of himself singing. In 2013, when Mendes was 15, he recorded a video singing a cover of the song “As Long As You Love Me” (2012) by the Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber . Mendes’s popularity grew rapidly after he posted a clip of his performance on the video-sharing website Vine. He continued to post videos of himself singing to Vine and other websites and attracted millions of followers within months. The American music producer Andrew Gertler discovered Mendes on YouTube. Mendes signed a recording contract in 2014.
Following “Life of the Party,” Mendes released four songs on his first EP, The Shawn Mendes EP (2014). EP stands for extended play and is a type of musical recording that includes several songs but is not considered a full-length album. His EP reached number five on the “Billboard 200” music chart. In 2015, Mendes released the single “Something Big,” followed by his first studio album, Handwritten. Handwritten premiered at the top of the “Billboard 200” chart. Also in 2015, Mendes opened for the American pop singer Taylor Swift on her world tour.
Mendes’s single “Stitches” became his first top-10 single on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart. His second and third albums, Illuminate (2016) and Shawn Mendes (2018), reached number one on the “Billboard 200” chart.
