Shawn Mendes Speaks Out After Backlash From "What the Hell Are We Dying For"

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On June 9, Shawn Mendes sent social media into a frenzy when he revealed that he was dropping a new song at midnight. While fans were excited to hear new music from the 24-year-old, he came under scrutiny because of the single's cover art. The image featured the New York skyline covered in thick smoke, similar to the actual depiction of the city, which was facing severe air quality issues due to forest fires in Canada.

"Started writing this song yesterday morning with my friends in upstate New York & finished it only a few hours ago…felt so important to me to share with you guys in real-time," Shawn wrote. Known for speaking publicly about climate change, the singer included a link to the Canadian Red Cross and revealed that he'd be donating.

Many social media users called out the singer for seemingly using the environmental crisis as a means to promote his new music. "C 'mon this song is about camila… he said two words about climate change and y’all are like YES KING you cannot be that blind pls i like shawn mendes but this ain’t it," one Twitter user wrote. Another added, "I love him and i know he has a good heart but i just can’t get over the fact he’s managed to turn a song abt climate change to be about camila it’s a new level i didnt think even shawn would reach."

One day after his post, Shawn opened up to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 about how difficult it's been for him to create new music. "I feel like over the last year and a bit, I’ve just been really struggling in the studio to find my voice and to find myself musically and to even have the courage just to be in the room with writers or step into the booth and sing," he said. "I was upstate New York and just on the back end of feeling a lot of things about relationships, about my career, about the environment. I was in the studio, and this moment of just deep frustration came over me, and I finally started to feel this inspiration come. Honestly, in that moment, it felt like it was the first time I felt that in a year and a half in the studio."

According to Shawn, the environmental crisis encouraged him to release the single. "I think I had this feeling of urgency, this feeling of honest excitement, this feeling of connection — this feeling of this is me right now, this is how I feel right now. […] I think we were up there in New York. The sky was orange, the air was thick, and the words were flowing, and this happened. In hindsight, it was scary. I woke up in the morning, and I was like, “Wow, what did I do?” I think it was a good thing for me to do for myself. I had to dive into the deep end. Otherwise, I would’ve sat there for years questioning myself… and I think it wraps around to just what is it that we care about in life? Who do we care about? What’s worth it? Why do we show up the way we do?"

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