For Millennials. By Millennials.
Shawn Mendes returned to tour with Taylor Swift this year on her Reputation tour. Taylor recorded behind the scenes of preparing for their Toronto leg of the tour at the Rose Bowl stadium. In that shoot was giving Shawn a makeover. She put on glittery eye shadow on the young artist. Shawn admits that he later regretted the decision to let her post it on her Instagram.
Shawn Mendes’ Makeover
While touring with Taylor Swift on her Reputation tour, Shawn became a part of a stunt that caused him anguish. The 20-year-old singer was promoting his album titled ‘Shawn Mendes’. It seems probable that he let Taylor put on makeup on him for promotional purposes. Or just because they were old friends. However, he found out that the whole makeover had been recorded. Taylor had posted it on her Instagram story. It had reached millions of her followers around the world. More so, Shawn even said,
‘This is perfect. This is all I wanted, ever.’
Shawn Became Restless
While it might have seemed a good idea then, Shawn certainly lost sleep over it later. He recently interviewed with Rolling Stone. He expressed his exact sentiment as;
“Fuck, why did I let her post that?”
He said that he had an anxiety episode. He lay awake the whole night.
Shawn is Struggling
He added,
I just fed the fire that I’m terrified of.
If you don’t know what fire Shawn is talking about. It’s the rumors about his sexuality. Shawn admitted that there are rumors that he is gay. For the past five years no less. Since his rise to fame. He said that it is a fear that he grabbed hold of him slowly. The singer admitted that he had not realized how much of a serious problem it became for him. Especially with people thinking he was gay. He has had to tolerate things because of it. His anxiety has increased as a result. Consequently, he finally admitted that he was formerly seeing Hailey Baldwin. After being quite about it for a long time. Even when Hailey declared that she was married to Justin Bieber.
Shawn admitted that in order to prove he is not gay, he had divulged too much about his love life. He has shared when he lost his virginity. He even admitted that he slept with a 25-year-old woman.
Taylor Swift Should Know Better
There are a few things to take out from this scenario. First, Shawn should definitely seek a new publicist. If he has been concerned about his image, then a sensible publicist would have advised against it.
Moreover, Taylor Swift also needs some control over her social media. She made a post about her Reputation tour every day. Her idea about giving her followers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look might be a good idea for her. When it comes to other people, she should consider more if they’d stay comfortable with the post being online for everyone to see. She did ask for his permission but other people can change their minds and can’t easily take the story down on someone’s else account.
As an artist who has faced the worst of media, she knows how it can impact a young artist. Taylor might consider herself a Godmother of some kind. Many Fifth Harmony fans have blamed her for leading Camilla Cabello’s departure from the girl group. Camilla was also among the performers at Taylor’s Reputation tour.
While Taylor is singing about her reputation, she might be putting the reputation of others on the line. Maybe she should keep her posts about herself and he boyfriend, Jo Alwyn.