Shawn Peter Raul Mendes was born on August 8th, 1998 in Toronto, Ontario. He is the son of Karen, a real estate agent, and Manuel Mendes, a businessman, selling bar and restaurant supplies in Toronto. His father is Portuguese (from the Algarve) while his mother is English. He has a younger sister named Aaliyah. He was raised in Pickering, Ontario, where he attended Pine Ridge Secondary School.

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In 2013, he began posting song covers on Vine, and millions of people started following him. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manager Andrew Gertler and Island Records A&R Ziggy Chareton, which led to him signing a deal with the record label.

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Shawn went on to release an EP in July 2014 and his debut studio album Handwritten (2015), whose single "Stitches" reached the top 10 in the United States and Canada, and number one in the United Kingdom. His second album Illuminate (2016) had two sigles, "Treat you better" and "There´s nothing holding" me back that reached the top list in hundreds of countries. Both albums debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200, with the first one making him one of five artists to ever debut at number one before the age of eighteen. In 2018, Shawn was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.