Shawn Mendes

His first claim to fame was the creation of short clips of famous songs and these soon became a hit, receiving millions of views online. Mendes never looked back after this initial success and with the help of his record producer released his first single – ‘Life of the Party’ in 2014. This single made him the youngest artist to break a single into the Top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100. During this time, Mendes also teamed up with another up and coming young star– Austin Mahone. Together they undertook a nationwide tour which proved to be highly popular. These initial successes resulted in the sale of thousands of copies of his debut EP and also won him his first Teen Choice Award in 2014. In early 2015, Mendes’s fame grew further when he released his new album-‘Handwritten’ which skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard 200 chart selling over a 100,000 copies in its first week. This outlined the astronomical success that Shawn Mendes had in just several months post his bursting onto the scene in 2014. He had already become a household name and his fame increased further through his single – ‘Stitches’ which hit number #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first single that Mendes had got into the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in his career. This single continued to grow in popularity and also peaked in the charts in the UK and also gave him an opportunity to further his fame through him playing openings acts for other more established stars. His fame was recognized more and more as time went on. He was listed among Time's The 25 Most Influential Teens in 2014 and 2015. This further emphasized the growth of his stardom. Towards the end of 2015, Mendes teamed up with Camila Cabello to release a track together called – ‘I know what you did last summer.’ There were several rumors of the two dating which was majorly in the news. Soon after, Mendes embarked on his tour of Europe and this helped him in gaining further fame and stardom. Through the first half of 2016, Mendes was working on and proceeded to subsequently release his next single ‘Treat you Better’ which was part of his studio album ‘Illuminate.’

Young, good-looking, and highly talented, Shawn Mendes is a rage among not just the Canadian youth, but also among young people all over the world. Dashing and well-built with a charismatic personality, the teenage singer is also known for his confidence and poise on the stage. Leveraging on his chocolate-boy looks, he has taken on modeling contracts and signed up with modeling agencies to complement his singing career.

Being a rapidly rising young star, Shawn Mendes has also been involved in several controversies. To promote the sales of his album – ‘Handwritten’, Shawn Mendes encouraged people to buy the album from the stores directly rather than online—for a small chance to meet him. This act was considered by many groups as “unethical” and “exploitative” on his part to enhance album sales. He again courted controversy with the launch of his video ‘Treat You Better’ which focuses on relationships affected by abuse. The video resulted in more than six million views within a few days and was very popular. Mendes encouraged people to look past the dark aspects of his video but the video generated controversy nonetheless. The video was also heavily criticized for focusing too much on domestic violence and Mendes justified that the focus of the video was more on relationships and not so much on the violence within them.