Yesterday, I wrote about Shawn Mendes’s attempt to downplay his relationship with Hailey Baldwin. He says they are friends and not the couple currently filling the Jelena-sized hole left in tween pop. I ran through the various scenarios that could explain why Shawn would want to go from red-carpet PDA to just friends with Hailey Baldwin.
A few of you emailed me with some more scenarios. One was that Hailey Baldwin is actually the one playing Shawn for publicity (I like this but he’s the one with an album to promote) and another, from my friend Tim, was that Shawn may only be interested in Hailey Baldwin as friends because – and this is probably just wishful thinking on Tim’s part—Shawn’s interests lay elsewhere. Listen, I have no business speculating about anyone’s sexuality but we also shouldn’t always assume that male pop stars are straight. Straightness shouldn’t be the default. In Shawn’s case, I’m only assuming it because he has only ever publicly talked about being interested in women. So, thanks everyone for your proposed scenarios but I’m sticking with the theory that Shawn Mendes played us all on that red carpet and knew exactly what he was doing to garner some good press.
I’m not mad at it. It doesn’t make me like him any less. Shawn Mendes keeps proving that he is good at this game and if the album delivers like his first two singles did, he’s going to be in this game for a long time. If Shawn is going to stick around, he’s going to have to master the talk show appearance. He’s already pretty close.
His latest appearance on Ellen is so adorable, I can hear Lainey squealing from across the pond. Speaking of people in London, Shawn shares some cute anecdotes about the royal family. He tells a story about a 10-minute awkward silence with the Queen (the other Queen) and shares that his “biggest regret” was being too shy to introduce himself to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. As Shawn is telling this story, he refers to Meghan as Canadian multiple times. He says he thought they would bond over being Canadian. Meghan Markle is from California. Tell me this kid isn’t endearing.
Shawn released another stellar new single today called “In The Morning”. The Shawn Mendes press tour is working because I was genuinely excited for this drop and it delivered. Like "Lost in Japan", this song is HOT. It’s a slow-burning, grown and sexy jam. Dammit. My Shawn Mendes problem isn’t going anywhere.
Listen to “In The Morning” here and watch Shawn on Ellen below.
