Featured in Sept. 26, 2019 issue of the Arka Tech
With the official arrival of fall, this week’s artist is one that may have sounded familiar this summer. Topping the music charts with the song “Señorita” with Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes is one of today’s hotter artists.
Mendes first became popular in 2013 at the now-deceased app Vine, doing guitar covers of popular songs like “Don’t” by Ed Sheeran, “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor and many more.
Fifteen-year-old Mendes got noticed by Andrew Gertler, an America talent manager, and signed a record deal with Island Records in 2014. According to biography.com, his first single, “Life of the Party,” was a success, placing 24 on the Billboard 100 and making him the youngest artist to debut a song in the Top 25.
Being a successful, charming Canadian artist, he was marked as “the next Justin Bieber.” For-tunately, Mendes separated himself from Bieber and toured around with other young artists on the MagCon Tour (Meet and Greet Convention). He released an extended play album titled “The Shawn Mendes EP” in July 2014 which drew in a bigger fanbase.
Over the years, Mendes has been nominated and won awards like the Kids’ and Teen Choice Awards, Radio Disney’s Awards and others.
Even though Mendes was born in Canada, he is the son of an English mother and a Portuguese father. He embraced his Portuguese heritage with a re-recording of “In My Blood,” a song about not giving in to anxiety. The hashtag, #inmybloodportugal, was created to support the Portugal soccer team for the FIFA World Cup in 2018. That same embrace is what made the top song “Señorita” with Camila Cabello.
According to Glamour magazine, Mendes and Cabello have officially started being open about their relationship together and claiming it’s not a publicity stunt for fame.
Now, Mendes is an artist known around the world. Much of his publicity is done through social media outlets like Twitter and Instagram. A recent tour spanned from North and South America to Europe and even Japan. The 21-year-old artist gets a five out of five stars for showing that a music star can rise from anywhere, even with only six seconds to show off their talent.
