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Pierre Lapointe, Grand Duke Of Broken Souls

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Shawn Mendes Sings He Was ‘About to Be a Father’ on New Track

Shawn Mendes Sings He Was ‘About to Be a Father’ on New Track
Charisma Madarang
By Charisma MadarangAug 09, 2024
Charisma Madarang
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Shawn Mendes marked his birthday, Aug. 8, with a double release on Thursday — unveiling tracks “Why Why Why” and “Isn’t That Enough” from his upcoming fifth album, Shawn.

The former was shared alongside a new video featuring Mendes strumming his guitar and singing inside a barn and along a river, spliced with footage of him performing solo on a dark stage. Anthony Wilson and Connor Brashier directed the visual for “Why Why Why,” while the lyrics see Mendes remember a former lover while pondering the cyclic nature of life.

“Visions of her naked in my head/But I went off and chose myself instead,” sings Mendes in the opening verse, while later in the song, he reveals: “I thought I was about to be a father/Shook me to the core I’m still a kid/Sometimes, I still cry out for my mother.”

When discussing “Why Why Why” in an upcoming interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Mendes told the host that “there was something anthemic about those words.” He added, “It almost felt like a cry. It felt like … I don’t know. It just felt powerful and beautiful.”

He also said that “Isn’t That Enough” felt like “I had a conversation with the fans and with the public.” He explained, “I needed to address that, ‘Hey, how have you been?’ And I needed to say back, ‘I’m good. Everything’s good. It’s going to be good. It’s all right.'”

The new ballads arrive nearly three years after Mendes and Camila Cabello announced their split in November 2021. In 2019 they released their collaborative track “Señorita,” which reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100.

He also shared that his fifth album was “the most natural thing I’ve ever made.” Mendes added that it “feels like the most natural thing to talk about it. It feels like the most natural thing to play live. And so it’s just giving me all these … It just kind of feels easier than it ever has in a really lovely way.”

With Shawn set to drop on Oct. 18, Mendes announced earlier this month that he will perform the album from top to bottom on an upcoming six-show run making stops at theaters in Woodstock, London, Nashville, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The trek kicked off on Thursday at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, and next week, he’ll take the stage at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.

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Pierre Lapointe, Grand duke of broken souls

Cotton two-piece by Marni, SSENSE.com / Shirt from personal collection

Photographer Guillaume Boucher / Stylist Florence O. Durand / HMUA: Raphaël Gagnon / Producers: Malik Hinds & Billy Eff / Studio: Allô Studio

Pierre Lapointe, Grand duke of broken souls

Many years ago, while studying theatrical performance at Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe, Pierre Lapointe was given a peculiar exercise by his teacher. The students were asked to walk from one end of the classroom to the other while observing their peers. Based solely on their gait, posture, and gaze, they had to assign each other certain qualities, a character, or even a profession.

Lapointe remembers being told that there was something princely about him. That was not exactly the term that this young, queer student, freshly emancipated from the Outaouais region and marked by a childhood tinged with near-chronic sadness, would have instinctively chosen for himself. Though he had been unaware of his own regal qualities, he has spent more than 20 years trying to shed this image, one he admits he may have subtly cultivated in his early days.

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