My mum's from here so she keeps calling it a fry up, yeah.
A fry up.
I just want a proper fry up.
A proper English fry up.
So I'm here with the very talented Shawn Mendes, lovely to meet you.
You too.
Welcome to the UK.
Thank you.
Are you enjoying your time here so far?
I am, it's really really nice. Except it's a little gloomy today, but.
You should have been here last week, it was literally pouring down with rain every single day.
It was in Canada too.
Oh really? That's okay, that makes it a little bit better. So, you are smashing it at the
moment, your EP number one across the world, that's pretty amazing, you must be feeling
really really positive.
I'm feeling really really good, I know, yeah.
I know you have millions of fans, but for people that don't know you that well, can
you tell us the story about how it all started for you?
Yeah, so basically what happened was a couple of summers ago, when vine just came out, which
is this little app that you can put 6 second videos on, and it was like the summer just
a couple of months after it came out and I posted this little cover of Justin Bieber
As Long As You Love Me, just singing the hook and then, I put it up and then the next day
I woke up and it had 10,000 like and my followers were like 10,000 and I thought the whole program
was lagging for some reason, not realising it was gonna go out of control like that.
But it was very crazy.
Now your song, Life of the Party.
Yeah.
I absolutely love it.
Thank you.
I listen to it on repeat and really- it's so good.
Thank you.
Tell me a bit about that song, what it means to you.
It's really about being confident about who you are as a person. As a teenager, being
a teenager, I feel like a lot of my fans can connect with me and relate in a type of way-
you feel uncomfortable, you almost feel like you don't belong in certain situations and
you find it hard to find your place in the world and the song is kinda like a reassurance
to tell you you rock, kind of thing. It's just a good feeling song.
I like that, you rock. That's a good vibe to give out, I like it. Now, we've got to
talk about The Vamps.
Yeah.
Love those boys.
I like them too.
What has it been like working on the track Cecilia, which is in the top ten, which is
amazing.
Thank you.
How did you get involved in working with them?
I was on tour with them. We were on the Austin Mahone tour in America and I got really close
with them really quickly, we were always together after the show and stuff. they became really
really good buddies of mine during the tour and, I don't know how really Cecilia came
about, it was out of nowhere. It was like an offer, and I was like. 'Of course, I'd
love to go on a song with them.' Then kinda came about like that. We were really laid
back about and really fun to do something with them.
What are they really like?
I don't know, do you see them a a rambunctious group of boys? Like a crazy group of boys.
They're not too crazy. You know what I think about them, they're just really cool. Whenever
I interview them, they're just so cool.
Yeah. They are cool but they're crazy. They're so crazy. They're always running around and
grabbing me and throwing me around and they're just like a bunch of gorillas running around
in the same room. Don't put them in the same room together or they'll run around and break
everything. That's how I see them.
Just a bunch of crazy gorillas.
Yeah.
I love that. Now, The Vamps obviously you've worked with, any other big boy bands you'd
like to work with? What about One Direction?
I'd love to work with them, they're really cool.
Have you sang any of their songs?
I must have on Vine. I've one so many. I've done 400 vines, I must have done one of theirs,
I'm sure. I'm sure it was a hit on Vine as well.
Now, you're from Canada. Do you ever get people comparing you to Justin Bieber? people calling
you the next Justin Bieber. What do you feel about that?
I can only take that as a compliment. He's so talented and has an amazing career so I
only take it as a compliment.
I've actually been looking at your twitter and I've learnt a few things about you. Apparently
you're a fan of Nandos.
Yeah, I went last night.
Did you? What did you order?
I had the half chicken with the fries which had the peri peri salt on.
It's so good.
Yeah, it was really good.
Really makes the difference. I was interested in this; you're a big fan of James Arthur.
Yeah, huge fan.
Obviously, he came from our big show The X Factor and I'm a big fan of him. So, how did
you- Did you follow the show over here? How did you hear of his music?
Since I was younger, I was always YouTubing stuff and I remember always YouTubing American
Idol and X Factor auditions and I cam across his X Factor audition and I fell in love with
what he did. i was following his whole X Factor thing of just YouTube from Canada and he's
a huge huge- He's honestly one of the biggest inspirations. Like, him and Ed Sheeran, massive.
Really? I mean, he's incredible.
He's insane.
Let's talk about Ed Sheeran. He did actually notice you when you started putting up your
vines. Tell me a bit more about that. I went to go see him at the O2.
How was he?
He was incredible, I mean there was thousands of people there. He's literally on a stage
with his guitar and you would never think you would be able to hold an audience like
that but he absolutely smashed it.
I know, that's why he's such a big idol of mine, because he just can hold hundreds of
thousands of people in his hands just with a guitar and it's just him on stage and he
can make everyone in the stadium quiet so it's really really cool, the way he is on
the stage and stuff. But, yeah, I met him in Los Angeles and it was one of the coolest
experiences ever. Just meeting your idol and someone who I really look up to and he was
just the really- Have you ever spoken to him?
Yeah, he was so down to Earth. you're like, 'Dude, you're this massive star, why you so normal?'
Right, exactly.
He's so normal!
I know, it's awesome. It's really cool.
I think this is a massive deal, that you've made The Times list of most influential teenagers.
It's a massive massive deal.
Huge. What an absolute honour. What was you reaction when you found out when you made
the list?
That was one of my bigger reactions to something really cool. That meant a lot to me to be
like a massive influence on teenagers in a great way so it was really really cool.
And you've listed a few of them, like Ed Sheeran and James Arthur, but when you were growing
up, who really influenced and made you do what you're doing now?
Honestly, I think as it is, I think a lot of it was just my parents. The way they act,
the way that my dad handled situations, like, I'd always look up to how my mum and dad would
deal with certain things. They were so successful and whatever they were really passionate about
and whatever I was passionate about they would let me follow my dreams in that kind of way.
They would never push me in a certain direction so they were a hug part of the reason I'm
doing well in what I'm doing.
Everyone wants to know, are you single?
Yes, I am.
You are? Whoo, single ready to mingle. And what do you look for?
Really funny girls.
They've just got to be really funny? That's good.
I like it when girls have a good sense of humour. Or really witty girls or quick girls.
So if they can make you laugh?
Yeah, then I'll love you.
Is it true you have five nipples?
No! It's definitely not true.
Why are The Vamps spreading these rumours?
Brad's hair is actually a wig, so.
Is it? No, I actually thought that.
It is.
Is it?
Yeah.
Whenever I've interviewed them, I'm like, 'That hair can't be real.'
It is, you should ask him next time, it is.