Shawn Mendes has clearly heard the constant buzz of whispers about his sexuality over the years, and on Monday (October 28), the singer addressed the elephant in the room during a quiet moment during his For Friends and Family tour at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver.

“I was thinking about this for a moment today, if I should say something tonight during this part of the set,” Mendes told the crowd as he sat on a stool and played his acoustic guitar, as seen in the TikTok video of a fan. After the audience repeatedly shouted “We love you!” had shouted, Mendes, 26, continued by describing what it was like growing up in the spotlight.

“I was very young when I started. I was 15 years old… The truth is, I didn’t get to do a lot of 15-year-old things and discover parts of myself that you do at 15,” he explained of the transition from high school student to travel through the United States. world. “Since I was very young there has been something about my sexuality, and people have been talking about it for so long. I think it’s a bit silly, because I think sexuality is so beautifully complex, and it’s so hard to put into boxes.”

Mendes has kept his dating life quite private for the past decade, and while he has been linked to a few other co-stars, his most high-profile romance was his two-year relationship with Camila Cabello, which inspired a number of his songs, including “Summer of Love” and “Wonder” and their 2019 hit duet, “Senorita.”

“It always felt like an infringement on something very personal to me. Something that I was figuring out within myself, something that I had yet to discover and have yet to discover,” he told the crowd about writing the new confessional song “The Mountain,” which tackles the persistent rumors surrounding his sexuality. continuing with the lyrics, “You can say I’m too young / You can say I’m too old / You can say I like girls or boys / Whatever suits you.”

“Writing this song felt really important to me because it felt like a moment where I could tackle it in a way that was close to my heart. I think I’m just speaking out now because I just want to be able to be closer to everyone and just kind of be in my truth. The real truth about my life and my sexuality is that, man, I’m figuring it out just like everyone else,” Mendes said to another round of supportive cheers. “Sometimes I don’t really know and other times I do. And it feels very scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that. And I’m trying to be really brave and allow myself to be human and feel things… And that’s all I want to say about that for now.”

He then launched into the verse “You can tell I’m too young” from “The Mountain,” which will be included on the singer’s upcoming fifth studio album, Shawnwhich will be released on November 15th.

In 2019, Mendes said The Guardian that the continued whispers and speculation about his sexuality “was hurtful… I get angry when people assume things about me because I imagine the people who don’t have the support system that I have and how that must affect them.” He then said that the rumors not only hurt him, but also the members of the LGBTQ community who admire him. “That’s why I was so angry, and you can see I still get angry, because I don’t think people understand that when you come to me about something that’s stupid, you hurt so many other people,” he said. “They may not talk, but they listen.”

Mendes discussed the issue in that interview in the wake of a 2018 interview Rolling stone cover story in which he addressed the lecture head-on, saying: “I feel like I need to be seen with someone – like a girl – in public, to prove to people that I’m not gay… Even though in my heart I know that it’s not a bad thing. There’s still a part of me that thinks that. And I hate that side of me.” He later criticized both stories for not painting the full picture of who he is.