Shawn Mendes says he’s figuring out his sexuality

Shawn Mendes addresses speculation about his sexuality, saying it “feels like such an intrusion” because he’s “just figuring it out like everybody else.”

The 26-year-old singer-songwriter spoke on the subject before performing the unreleased track “The Mountain” during a concert at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater on Monday night. According to fan recordings of the song, “The Mountain” appears to have been inspired by rumors surrounding Mendes’ sexuality. “You can say I’m too young/ You can say I’m too old/ You can say I like girls or boys/ Whatever fits your mold,” he sings.

“Since I was really young, there’s been something about my sexuality and people have been talking about it for so long,” Mendes said in video recorded by fans. “And I think it’s kind of silly because I think sexuality is such a beautifully complex thing and it’s so hard to just put it in boxes.”

Mendes continued that the speculation “always felt like such an intrusion into something very personal to me, something that I was discovering within myself, something that I hadn’t yet discovered and still have yet to discover.”

Of “The Mountain”, Mendes said that “writing this song felt really important to me because it felt like a moment where I could address it in a way that felt close to my heart.”

He added: “The real truth about my life and about my sexuality is, man, I’m just figuring it out like everybody else, and I don’t really know it sometimes and I know other times. And it feels really scary because we live in a society that has a lot to say about that and I try to be really brave and just allow myself to be human and feel things.”

Mendes had previously addressed the speculation in 2016 when he was 17 years old. In a video posted on Snapchat, he said: “First of all, I’m not gay. Second, it shouldn’t make a difference if I was or if I wasn’t. The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality. “

Mendes’ new album, “Shawn,” is out November 15.