Shawn Mendes Says He 'Was About to Be a Father' on New Song

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Shawn Mendes is getting candid on his new song “Why Why Why.”

“I thought I was about to be a father / Shook me to the core, I’m still a kid,” Mendes, 26, sings in the track’s bridge, which came out on Friday, August 9. “Sometimes I still cry out for my mother / Why, why, why? Why, why, why?”

He continues, “I don’t know, I don’t know why … Feels like everything goes ’round and ‘round / And ’round, and ’round, and ’round it goes / Feels like everything goes ’round and ‘round.”

Mendes has not further addressed the supposed pregnancy scare. The Canadian singer, who has been single since he and on-off girlfriend Camila Cabello split for good in June 2023, wanted the song lyrics to be very honest.

“I realized there was two options for me. It was literally like, ‘I’m going to go down this path of speaking my exact truth or I’m going to dance around it,’” Mendes told Zane Lowe in an Apple Music 1 interview released on Friday. “It felt pointless to dance around it, even if the song was never to see the light of day.”

He added, “I was like, ‘Why are we here dancing around it?’ So yeah, it felt like I crossed a big threshold. I think it feels just really liberating, even just to be in a space where I’ve done that as a writer. Now I feel more free to do that as a human.”

Mendes further noted that he “felt no pressure” being candid on the song, explaining, “It was just one of those experiences where there became this joke while we were making the album that was, like, if I started to experience some pretty heavy anxiety in the studio, everyone was sure that a great song was going to be coming after it because there was some sort of healing crisis, some sort of breakthrough that was supposed to happen.”

The song’s title, Mendes said, is meant to be a mantra.

“It almost felt like a cry. It felt, like, I don’t know. It just felt powerful and beautiful,” Mendes said on Friday.

Mendes released “Why Why Why” alongside another new song called “Isn’t That Enough.”

“I wanted people to feel the spectrum of the song and space,” he said of the musical juxtaposition. “I felt, like, I had a conversation with the fans and with the public just to be, like, ‘How are you?’ I needed to address that ‘Hey, how have you been?’ And I needed to say back, ‘I’m good. Everything’s good. It’s going to be good. It’s all right.’”