Shawn Mendes Recalls Being That ‘Immature Boy’ Before Courting Camila

Shawn Mendes has his journal to thank for his dreamy fourth studio album Wonder. The “Monster” singer joined Ryan Seacrest on-air on Friday, December 4, and shared everything from what it was like to record the album in quarantine living at girlfriend Camila Cabello's parent's house to what’s been his most humbling life experience so far.

Wonder features of bevy of lovestruck songs, including “Always Been You” and “24 Hours,” which hints at marriage with fairytale lyrics including: "All it'd take is 24 hours/ We could dance, you could throw the flowers/ It's a little soon/ But I wanna come home to you.”

While it’s no secret Camila and Mendes are a match made in heaven, the 22-year-old crooner has been vocal that he crushed hard on the songstress prior to their first date.

“That was a mind-blowing moment for me and we were only dating for a few months at the point,” Shawn recalled to Seacrest after sharing that Camila had no idea his songs were about her. “This was after 'Señorita' came out. … I think the funny thing about that is I guess as an immature boy you’re like ‘she has to know, she has to know’ instead of just telling her,” he added. “And I just assumed she had to know, … but obviously she had no idea.”

Take 2016 track “Ruin” for example, Mendes explained.

“It was more like I had heard through the grapevine that she had feelings for some guy,” he recalled. “She wasn’t dating him. They never even hung out, but I heard she had feelings and I’m writing a song that's like, ‘I’m not trying to ruin your happiness,’” he reflected, laughing. “… I’m like so dramatic.”

Fast-forward to December 2020 and things have clearly worked out. The duo have become closer than ever, having quarantined together in Miami.

“I didn’t even have a studio. I had no real equipment. So I started journaling and the journaling was actually the whole reason Wonder happened,” Shawn shared. “The whole reason the album cohesively came tougher in such a beautiful way was because I started expressing my thoughts on paper. … Now I’ll always do that.”

Credit: OAWRS Zoom

That said, Shawn actually wrote Justin Bieber collab “Monster” three years ago.

“I’ve known Justin for a long time, but something changed over the first kind of quarantine period,” he shared with Seacrest. “I don’t even honestly remember why, but we got back in touch and we got on a FaceTime call and just started talking and you know when you’re talking with someone and they have the look in their eyes and they just get it? … It just went off from that point and the interesting thing is the song wasn’t even in mind,” he added. “I wrote that song three years ago. It was more of our conversation led us to a point where I was like, ‘Hey, I wrote’ — at some point we were just talking about the pressures of being a celebrity — and I was like ‘I wrote something like this called ‘Monster’ three years ago’ and I just sent it to him and when he sent me that I was like, ‘Oh my God, Justin Bieber is on this song with me. That’s crazy.’”

Watch back the full interview in the video above for more from Shawn, including to hear what’s been his most humbling experience so far. Plus, don’t miss Shawn Mendes’ “Wonder: The Experience” livestream benefit show this Saturday (December 5). Click here for details.


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