The singer debuted the title track off of his album, 'Wonder,' on Friday.
Shawn Mendes is revealing how his new music helped his relationship with Camila Cabello. During an interview with radio.com, the 22-year-old singer shared how getting emotional for his music led him to mend a relationship problem with his 23-year-old girlfriend.
"I thought that I was a pretty open, emotional, guy until I started being in a relationship with someone that I really, truly love and, realizing that, 'Oh no, I really have this big ego, and I don’t want to show her that I’m hurting and I don’t want to show her that that offended me, and like I want to be the man, and I want to be strong in this relationship,'" he said. "It actually was hurting our relationship."
Mendes also spoke to Sirius XM's The Morning Mashup about how Cabello has supported his new music, including his latest single, "Wonder," and his upcoming album of the same name.
"She really was a champion for this album," he said. "I remember back when I first started a lot of the concepts and they felt a little bit intimidating. She was like, 'Go, keep going, keep going.' And she would do this thing like once a month, 'Hey, just a reminder, this concept you're on is incredible. It's going to make people feel something really special. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop.'"
"It was this force of energy that I think was really helpful... 'Cause I think what happens is when you go to write an album, you start writing something and then you start worrying about what people think. And you start thinking about expectations. You start thinking about reactions and then you start changing your album," Mendes continued. "But if you want a world and you want an essence and you want people to feel a certain way, you have to decide and make it and finish it and let it breathe in the world and hope for the best because I guess that's all you can do. And this is the first time I really felt that I've done that with an album."
Cabello made her support for the album known publicly with a sweet Instagram post praising her beau.
"The world could use some magic, beauty, and Wonder always, but especially right now. @shawnmendes what a gorgeous gift to the world," she wrote. "He’s crafted this album with every last bit of his soul, his spirit, and his essence with the purest of intentions. My love, I’m so proud of the person you are and I’m so excited for people to see and hear your heart."
During his chat with radio.com, Mendes also spoke about how Wonder, which is due out in December, led him down a path of self-reflection.
"I think one thing that really kind of happened to me over the last six months is this real moment of reflecting and kind of looking at my own life, but also, like, being able to look at the world and not be so caught up in my career, my job, and my life, but able to kind of look around and see things a lot clearer for the first time," he said. "Learning that when it comes to matters of the heart, you don’t really have to be a professor of it. You just have to know morally inside what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad."
"I feel like 'Wonder' is in a lot of ways me just reflecting on my life, and life in general," Mendes continued. "I’ve never really done that before… probably because I didn’t have the mental capacity and clarity to even be able to reflect, and also probably because I was really scared of what people would think if I started to reflect in my music."
The personal growth that Mendes has experienced as a result of making the album has made him less anxious about how the public will receive it.
"There came a point in the process of making this album where I decided that the album already did exactly what it needed to do, which was, it made me happy, it gave me chills," he said. "I sent it to Mom, I sent it to my girlfriend, I sent it to my best friends, and they all were ecstatic about it. If that was the end of the run of Wonder, I would’ve been able to live my life extremely happy."
Wonder is due out Dec. 4. The single of the same name is available now.
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