HE is bigger than Justin Bieber . . . and Bieber, his arch rival, knows it. While the pop brat takes a break from music, fellow Canadian Shawn Mendes is cementing his position as the music world’s top male performer. His huge world tour is playing to 1.5million people over 97 dates in 25 countries. It reached the UK […]
HE is bigger than Justin Bieber . . . and Bieber, his arch rival, knows it.
While the pop brat takes a break from music, fellow Canadian Shawn Mendes is cementing his position as the music world’s top male performer.
His huge world tour is playing to 1.5million people over 97 dates in 25 countries. It reached the UK this week, starting last night in Leeds, before three dates at London’s O2 Arena next week.
With Shawn having racked up 20BILLION song streams, 15million album sales and a megabucks deal modelling Calvin Klein underwear, you can see why Justin would be worried.
Best of all for British fans, Shawn hails from . . . Yeovil in Somerset.
His mum Karen was brought up in the West Country town — stamping ground of The Wurzels, the folk band behind hits such as The Combine Harvester and I Am A Cider Drinker.
She moved to Ontario, Canada, in the Seventies with her parents Suzanne, now 66, and Peter, 70.
And Karen, an estate agent, has kept Shawn true to his heritage, along with his Portuguese-born dad Manuel, who owns a company that supplies bars and restaurants.
Shawn says: “My mum’s British, so I’ve been having roast dinners every Sunday for as long as I can remember. I definitely inherited my sense of humour (from her).
“Sarcasm, and understanding that people aren’t going to take it easy on you sometimes, that’s kind of the British culture — in a good way.”
Shawn also inherited British good manners and never says no to fans who want a selfie.
That is one of the singer’s golden rules, along with hitting the gym every day and taking two vocal lessons each day too.
Our exclusive pictures show Shawn aged ten with his family and towering over his grandma last year.
The family still have ties to Sturminster Newton, Dorset, where a number of the pop star’s aunts, uncles and cousins live.
Shawn’s extended British family of almost 30 are expected to attend one of his three shows at the O2, where he will play to 60,000 fans.
The last time they saw him play was at the Queen’s 92nd birthday celebrations last year.
You can’t get much more British than that.
Shawn, 20, says: “It was insane. My grandad and my nan were there and it was a massive deal for them.”
Fast-forward 12 months and Shawn is a seriously big deal himself.
The singer-songwriter, whose following on social media runs to 70million fans, was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
And last week he was also referred as the “Prince of Pop” by another mag — which really got Justin’s back up. So much so, Justin trolled him online after Shawn shared the mag’s cover.
Justin said: “Hmm. Gonna have to break a few more records to dethrone my title there, bud.”
He jokingly challenged Shawn to a game of ice hockey to decide the title, adding: “(Canadian voice) but if you want we can play hockey for it . . . we could just drop the buckets and tilt for it.”
Shawn’s career echoes that of Justin, who at 25 is five years older. While Justin rocketed to fame after posting videos of his singing on YouTube, Shawn drummed up interest from record labels with clips on now-defunct app Vine.
He was snapped up by Island Records in 2014 and released his debut album the next year aged 16 — the age Justin was when his hit Baby came out. And like Justin, he has cashed in on the teen market, with millions of young female fans around the globe.
Those fans went wild in February when Shawn landed a lucrative role plugging Calvin Klein underwear, as Justin did in 2015.
Images of the star posing in the designer pants sent his army of fans into meltdown.
The similarities even extend to their private lives. Shawn briefly dated model Hailey Baldwin, 22, who married Justin just FOUR MONTHS later, last September.
And like Justin, Shawn is open about smoking cannabis, hinting it helps him write songs.
Shawn told Rolling Stone magazine last year: “I love weed. I wouldn’t tweet that — not yet, at least — but it’s really good for me.
“When I’m home, I’ll smoke then play guitar for seven hours.”
After becoming a sensation almost overnight, fans have obsessed over their idol’s sexuality.
Shawn warned about the dangers for him of that obsession in a frank interview: “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.”
Earlier this week, Justin lashed out at Shawn over that magazine cover.
And he has reason to be intimidated. All three of Shawn’s albums to date have hit No1 in the US and Canada. His 2015 single Stitches hit No1 in the UK charts and six other tunes have broken into the Top 40.
Not that Shawn is getting complacent. He describes himself as “extremely neurotic” and says: “It’s my biggest fear to wake up tomorrow and (find) nobody cares.”
Shawn’s lyrics hint at struggles with his mental health and reveal his devastation over the 2017 terror attack in Manchester at his pal Ariana Grande’s concert.
Speaking about his battle with anxiety on The Sun’s Dan Wootton Interview podcast, he said: “If I let myself worry about all of the small things that came with that, then I would go crazy.
“But I spend my time thinking about the really big problems and the really big issues with me.
“On the other hand, I have an incredible team around me.
“I never want to talk about how much stress it is being in the (public) eye like that. Because the truth is no matter what you’re doing — whether you’re a celebrity or an engineer — there is something in your life based off the perspective you have that is just as stressful as what I go through every day.”
Among his celebrity fans are long-term friend Camila Cabello and former One Direction star Niall Horan.
Niall said: “He’s a very, very sweet guy. And he can sing like an angel.”
Camila gushed about his third album online, tweeting: “My mind was blown listening to this album. I’m in awe of you.”
For now, Shawn is continuing his global tour with shows in the capital and in Dublin.
He will begin the North American leg of the tour in June before moving on to Australia, New Zealand and finally Latin America, where the run of gigs will wind up in December.
But with more music teased for release as soon as next month, the Somerset lad is surely here to stay.
