What a difference a year makes.
Last September, Justin Bieber was giving fellow Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes nothing but shade. This month, he’s giving him major props.
“Shawn Mendes voice makes me smile,” Bieber tweeted on Oct. 5. “Truly a gift to be able to move peoples emotions through songs! So proud of you brother! Great album!.”
This came on the same day as a tweet in which Biebs urged his 88.7 million followers to buy Mendes’ new album, Illuminate. He also tweeted a link to Illuminate on Apple Music.
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Only 13 months ago, Bieber said “Who’s Shawn Mendes?” when he was asked by a New York radio host if he had any advice for him.
Ralphie Aversa explained “He’s from southern Ontario. He's 17 years old. He's got a song called ‘Stitches' that's, like, doing OK at pop radio … He’s also from southern Ontario.” (For the record, the hometowns of Bieber and Mendes are about 200 km apart.)
Bieber replied: “Nice. Nice. Good for him.
“I don’t know him, but I will check him out, for sure.”
Whether Bieber was being serious or not, it was seen by many fans as a shot at Mendes.
Mendes took it in stride. “We haven’t met, but I guess he just doesn’t know,” Mendes later told BBC Radio 1. “I’m definitely a fan of him. I looked up to him for awhile, but I guess he just doesn’t know who I am. We’ll have to let him know.”
The next day, Bieber put an end to the drama.
“Shawn I checked out the music and I’m so proud!,” he declared on social media. “So glad to see another boy from Canada crushin it. #canadiansdoitbetter”
Mendes was thrilled with the shout-out.
"It was really cool, really sweet of him. I was really happy," he told MTV at the iHeart Radio Music Festival. "Obviously, people took that the wrong way, so it was really nice of him to do that.”
Fast forward 13 months and Bieber is publicly praising Mendes’ new album.
Mendes retweeted Bieber and said: “Ah man! Thank you SO much!!! Truly thank you!”
Mendes, now 18, has frequently been compared to Bieber in articles and interviews. He recently told People that he looked up to Bieber and considered him a role model so “I didn’t take offence to any of it.”
Last week, Mendes became only the second male artist to have two consecutive albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard chart by the age of 18. The first? Justin Bieber.
On Oct. 6, Mendes told his Twitter followers he had a dream about getting shade from another Canadian.
“Had a dream I was playing soccer and on the way to the bathroom I saw Drake, so I introduced myself to him and he had no clue who I was,” he shared on Twitter. “So I went on to say ‘I’m from Toronto you know! The guy who sings Stitches’ and he’s like ah cool I don’t know that track.
“I was heartbroken.”