Shawn Mendes Was Bullied for his Voice and Love of Singing

Shawn never excepted a video of himself singing would cause so much grief...

 

A song by Adele made Shawn Mendes feel like the worst singer in the world.
Before he became a pop star, Shawn was bullied for his voice and his love for singing and performing.

“ in a way, that made me feel absolutely horrible... made me feel like a joke.”

Shawn Mendes learned how to play the guitar all by himself when he was a teenager. His dream was to become a famous musician.
At 16 years old, one of the songs he liked to play the most was by Adele. And, every day, Shawn felt more confident to share his talent with others. That’s when we decided to shoot a cover of “Hometown Glory”.

“ I was just standing in my room, it’s an acapella version of me singing, I just put the camera up on my dresser and just started to film myself. And that was I guess how it started.”

But Shawn never excepted that the video would upset him so much. The singer used to be the laughing stock at school.

“ I've always been really tall and lanky. people made fun of my skinny legs.”

After uploading his video, Shawn was mocked even more at school.

“ there was this one hallway every single day I’d a walkthrough, and there would be a bunch of guys maybe like ‘Are you gonna sing for us, buddy? You can sing for us?’ I remember it being like the most embarrassing thing ever never understanding why people would think that it’s fun to make fun of somebody who’s doing something that they love.”

Shawn even though he was doing something wrong or inappropriate. But his family and real friends did everything they could to encourage him.

“ they would never let me stop doing what I loved to do just because someone else thought it was stupid. “

Shawn continued to post his covers on YouTube and Vine. Every day he gained more followers who were charmed by his performances. The negative comments didn’t stop, but he tried to ignore them.

“ I just ignored it as much as I could. Even thought that’s really hard.”

His Justin Bieber cover was such a hit, that the musician was finally discovered by a manager. And, in 2015, he released his first album with the single “Stitches”. The song reached first place in the united kingdom music charts and was one of the most played songs in the world. Because of the album, Mendes became part of the select group of artists to reach Billboard’s No.1 spot before turning 18 years old.

“ if I let those guys get into my head and you know, they said it’s, you know, it’s stupid that you’re doing this and I’d believed them, I’d never be here today in front of you guys.”

Shawn wrote “In My Blood” to talk about overcoming struggles.

“ Sometimes I feel like giving up. But, I just can’t. It isn’t in my blood. “

And he encourages fans around the world to never give up on their dreams because of other people’s opinions.

“ no matter how old you are, no matter who you are, no matter where you are from... you deserve to follow your heart.“