Shawn Mendes got candid about his sexuality during his latest concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado on Monday (October 28) night before previewing an unreleased track.
Video footage captured by a fan (Yashar Ali on X) shows the star speaking openly about his feelings regarding sexuality before serenading the crowd with "The Mountain" (per Variety), prefacing the theme of the forthcoming single with a discussion on what he missed as a teen when his career took off.
"I didn't get to do a lot of 15 year old things and discover parts of myself that you do at 15 and...man...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."
The "Stitches" standout referred to sexuality as a "beautifully complex thing" that's "hard to just put into boxes."
He continued:
"It always felt like such an 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 ... The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m just figuring it out like everyone. I don’t really know sometimes and I know other times."
Mendes concluded by revealing that it feels scary to be a part of a society that has a lot to say about sexuality, and that he's allowing himself to feel everything (without zooming in on any particulars).
"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. And that’s all I really want to say about that for now."
View the "In My Blood" singer's full message to fans below and listen to everything Shawn Mendes on iHeartRadio.