In his revealing new documentary, Shawn Mendes gets vulnerable with fans and shows them a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of his life.
The film, directed by Grant Singer, follows the 22-year-old on his 104 show world tour. Mendes opens up about the ups, the downs, and the abnormal realities of his life, and what led him to his journey of self-discovery.
The documentary is honest and filled with revealing details about Mendes’ life. We are going to break down the top five most dramatic moments.
- Not Superman
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With 11 days left of his world tour, the singer strains his voice and makes the difficult decision to cancel his São Paulo, Brazil show to not risk permanently damaging his voice.
Mendes doesn’t shy away from showing his emotions, as he cries to his mom over facetime, in an empty stadium, heartbroken over the news of the cancellation. “It’s not the end of the world, babe. Take a breath. You can’t help it,” she softly reassures her son, who cracks a smile as he wipes away his tears.
Earlier on, the star opened up about the pressures of maintaining his image, and why he feels like he has to. “If I tell the world that I’m just a normal human, are they going to stop coming to the shows and listening to the music and is all the craziness going to stop? Then you’re like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t tell them. I should keep the trick up. Maybe I should pretend I’m Superman for a little bit longer.”
- “Everything is about you”
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The world has witnessed Mendes and longtime friend and “Señorita” collaborator Camilla Cabello’s relationship grow over the years, but what we didn’t know was that even when they were ‘just friends,’ she inspired all of the songwriter’s hits.
When driving around in the backseat of a car during a rainy day in New York, Mendes reveals that all his songs have always been about his current girlfriend.
“We were in New York and a song comes on the radio or something, and the fact comes up that it’s about her,” he recalls, “and I’m like, ‘yeah, it’s about you. Everything’s about you. They’ve always been about you.’ She goes, ‘what do you mean?’ I’m like, ‘they’re all about you. Like, every song I ever wrote.’ She literally had no idea. This whole time I thought she knew.”
Cabello made a few appearances throughout the film, and the usually private couple let us in to a little bit of their lives, and even shared a few adorable kisses.
- “Small-town thoughts”
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In a heartwarming moment in In Wonder, the “In My Blood” singer returns home to Pickering, Ont. after being away for over three months.
He takes us to his childhood home, the field where he and his friends used to play soccer after school, and his current condo in downtown Toronto. He opens the door to his balcony and looks out to the view of the cloudy city. Excited, he points out the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre as he says it’s the best view he’s ever seen of the stadium.
With a capacity of over 54 thousand, the Rogers Centre is one of the biggest shows the performer has ever played, but it’s not just the size that matters.
“On the street, the coffee guy says he’s coming to the show. My door guy at the condo’s like, ‘I’m coming to the show,'” he says giddily, “this is a real family thing. This isn’t like, you’re playing your biggest show of all time. It’s more like, ‘This is incredible. We’re in his hometown. There’s so much love surrounded, he’s playing a show.’ It also happens to be the biggest stadium in the country.”
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The Wonder Album
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Clips from Mendes in the studio working on his upcoming album, Wonder, are woven through the film.
“The heaviness of the tour in a lot of ways made me want to flip things around and become more positive, you know?” the singer revealed. “And I’m writing about anxiety more as a companion that I have to live with and less of an enemy that I’m trying to resist.”
- “I’m just a guy who really loves music”
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At the end of the nostalgic-feeling documentary, he reflected on the past year, admitting that despite it being very intense, “This is something I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said.
“How do you get to the end of a very, very intense year and want to do it all over again?” he continued. “I wish, at the end of this tour, I had some profound thing to say about all this, but you know what the truth is? You walk up on the stage and you look around and you think, ‘I’m just a guy who really loves music. Time to let go.’”