As news broke out that popular singer Shawn Mendes has cancelled the remainder of his world tour owing to mental health, several other stars have come forward to offer him help. Mendes has announced that he will be taking some time off to focus on his mental and physical health, as he pointed out he was ‘not at all ready’ for the difficulties that would come with the tour.

The 23-year-old had risen to prominence in 2013 from video sharing application vine, where he used to regularly share song covers. While he has made thousands of fans in the next few years, he remains a mystery to many musical enthusiasts in the world. Let’s take a look at who the singer is and how he rose to fame.

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Born on August 8, 1998, in Ontario, Canada, Mendes grew up in a small city called Pickering. He is of mixed ethnicity as his father hails from Portugal, while his mother is from England. Shawn picked up an interest in music while he was attending high school at Pine Ridge Secondary School. He graduated high school in 2016, and auditioned for Disney Channel in Toronto.

He taught himself to play guitar by watching YouTube tutorials at an age of 14. After learning to play the instrument, Mendes began posting song covers on YouTube and came under attention when he posted a cover from Justin Bieber’s As Long As You Love Me on vine in 2013.

It was reported that Mendes thought of Bieber as an inspiration at the time and became the third-most followed musician on Vine in 2014. 

Andrew Gertler, an artist manager, found out about Mendes in 2013 and brought him to Island Records in January 2014. The young musician broke out to the world soon, as he won a popular musical contest and signed a contract with Island Records in 2014.

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Since then, Mendes has gone on to record several singles as well as albums, and picked up praises from all corners of the world. His major label EP peaked at no. 5 on the Billboard 200 as it sold 48,000 copies in the opening week.

His other popular albums include Handwritten, Illuminate, Shawn Mendes and Wonder. He became the youngest ever artist to make it in the top 25 of Billboard Hot 100 in 2014. Mendes has received many awards since then.