Shawn Mendes Addresses Pregnancy Scare Lyrics In His New Song

Shawn Mendes isn’t ready to become a father just yet. In an Oct. 31 interview with The New York Times, the singer opened up about experiencing a pregnancy scare he alluded to on the first single of his forthcoming fifth studio album, Shawn.

In his recent single “Why Why Why,” Mendes indicated he was close to welcoming his first child without going into too much detail. “I thought I was about to be a father,” he sings on the bridge. “Shook me to the core, I’m still a kid / Sometimes I still cry out for my mother, why, why, why?”

He explained in the interview that he went through a pregnancy scare with an unnamed partner, saying the ordeal “taught [him] a lot as a man.” Later, when one of his musical collaborators suggested opening up about it in a song, he hesitated.

“And then I was like, why am I doing this?” he recalled. It prompted him to be more honest in his songwriting. “And also, I wanted to break down any walls that were remaining, between me and people listening.”

Mendes’ “Hard Left”

Mendes also opened up about his mental health issues, which caused him to call off his 2022 Wonder Tour after seven shows. “It has become more clear that I need to take the time I’ve never taken personally, to ground myself and come back stronger,” he wrote in a statement at the time.

Speaking to The Times, he explained that he was “severely depressed” offstage, though he “found beauty” in playing shows. “I just didn’t recognize myself,” he said. “I was a shell — like talking to a wall.” He said he started craving more alcohol, which he had sworn off before shows, and that enabled him to make a change.

“I was like, I’m not going to rewrite the same story that’s been written a thousand times by musicians and artists, where they can’t cope and they’d start taking more drugs, more alcohol, until it’s too much,” he said. “I’m just going hard left.”

That “hard left” involved pouring his emotions out on Shawn, which he recorded over the past two years. “Healing takes time,” he said. “More than you want. And it’s beautiful, because you can be healing and expressing at the same time. You can be joyful and grieving simultaneously.”