Shawn Mendes Opens Up About Sexuality at Red Rocks Show

While performing at Red Rocks on October 28, Shawn Mendes paused during his unreleased new song "The Mountain" to address speculation surrounding his sexuality.

The song also alluded to the topic, with such lyrics as "You can say I’m too young / You can say I’m too old / You can say I like girls or boys / Whatever fits your mold.” "I thought about this for a minute today, if I was going to say something tonight at this point in the set," the singer-songwriter said while strumming the guitar.

"I was really young when I started, I was fifteen years old," he continued. "I went right into working a lot and traveling, and it was the most beautiful thing. But the truth is that I didn't get to kind of do a lot of fifteen-year-old things and discover parts of myself that you do at fifteen. And man, you know, since I was really young...there's been this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long. And I think it's kind of silly, because sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it's so hard to just put into boxes. And it always felt like such an intrusion on something very personal to me, something that I was figuring out in myself, something I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover."

The 26-year-old said that writing "The Mountain" felt "really important" to him, "because it felt like a moment where I could address it in a way that felt close to my heart. And yeah, I guess I'm just speaking freely now because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and be in my truth.

"The real truth about my life and my sexuality," he continued, "is that, man, I'm just figuring it out like everyone. And I don't really know sometimes, and I know other times. And it feels really scary, because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that, and I'm trying to be really brave and allow myself to be a human and feel things, and yeah...that's all I really want to say about that for now."

The crowd cheered in support of Mendes, who continued with the song that will be released along with his self-titled album on November 15.

This is the first time Mendes has publicly spoken about his sexuality other than in a 2016 Snapchat. “First of all, I’m not gay," he said then. "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.”

And at Red Rocks, Mendes received the rallying support that anyone should when addressing the topic, while still keeping the focus on music and opening up through song.