Photo Courtesy of Billboard
It’s said people only get fifteen minutes of fame. If that’s true then Shawn Mendes has done wonders with just six seconds of a time.
Earlier this week Mendes, the third most followed musician on Vine, signed with Island Records of the Universal Music Group. Now the 15 year old cover artist is debuting his original work “Life of the Party” later this month followed soon after by his first EP under Island Records. I’m definitely not used to anything that’s going on,” Mendes told Billboard Magazine. “I’m in awe.”
Mendes’s musical career began in the 8th grade when he started posting Youtube videos of himself singing. When he noticed that the very popular 6 second Vine videos had curious lack of music he seized the opportunity to separate himself from the rest of the YouTube music community. On a whim he posted a video of an abridged Justin Bieber Song. Within a day, over 10,000 people had liked it with most of them subscribing to Mendes, the sudden celebrity.
Mendes spent the next year performing concerts and releasing more daring covers. All of his effort paid of ths past March when he took home Ryan Seacrest’s “Best Cover Song” Award for his take on A Great Big World’s “Say Something”. Now that news of his record deal has hit the web, twitter has officially verified Mendes’s account. This has led to the humorous but heartfelt #iwasherebeforeshawngotverified hastag circulating all over twitter by the fans who have followed Mendes before his mainstream success.
Now Mendes is preparing for a new album by collaborating with up and coming songwriters Ido Zmishlany and Matt Squire. The experience has also gotten him to meet his idol Ed Sheeran, who spent some one on one time with the young singer giving him tips on what is to come.
Shawn Mendes enters the next step of his career with an enviable fanbase. Over 2.4 million followers on vine, 534,000 on Youtube, 1.2 million on Instagram, 1.1 million on Twitter, and over 285,000 followers. There’s no telling what the fan base Mendes will have when he officially makes the transition from viral celebrity to just plain celebrity.