Shawn Mendes finally addresses sexuality after years of online speculation

Singer-songwriter spoke about and said it's "complex" at a concert this week amid him referencing rumours about his personal life in a song on his new album.

Shawn, 26, is preparing for the release of his self-titled next album on November 15. He's been at gigs in recent weeks, including the Mountain, in which he about his sexuality.

Footage shared by fans on social media, which according to was filmed at a gig in on Monday, shows Shawn discussing the commentary ahead of performing the song. In the introduction, he recalls having been in the music industry since he was 15 years old, and says that he didn't get to "discover parts of" himself that his peers did then.

He's heard saying: "Since I was really young, there's this thing about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long. I think it's kind of silly, because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing, and it's so hard to just put into boxes. It always felt like [it's] such intrusion on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out in myself, something that I had yet to discover and still have yet to discover."

Shawn continues: "The truth about my life and my sexuality 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 just allow myself to be a human and feel things."

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As revealed in clips on social media, the lyrics of the song include: "You can say what you need to say. You can say I'm too young, say I'm too old, you can say I like girls or boys, whatever fits your mould. You can say I'm a dreamer, you can say I'm too far gone, but I've never been better so call it what you want."

Shawn - who's been romantically linked to singers and in recent years - has long attracted attention over his personal life. The musician once described the speculation about his sexuality as "ignorant and insensitive" in an interview with in 2020.

He said on Snapchat in 2016, as reported by : "I don't usually do this and bring up problems, but I was on YouTube just watching some of my interviews, and I was going down the comments and noticed a lot of people were saying that I gave them a 'gay vibe.' First of all, I'm not gay. 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."

magazine later reported that the nominee had "had enough" when he did the video. He told the outlet: "I thought, 'You f***ing guys are so lucky I'm not actually gay and terrified of coming out'. That's something that kills people." He then questioned: "Who cares if I'm gay?"

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