Justin Bieber now knows who Shawn Mendes is. Even better, the Biebs congratulated his fellow Canadian on his music and promoted it on his own Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Classy.
Checked out the music. Way to go buddy. @ShawnMendes #Canadians https://t.co/1WdiLKpJUV
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 17, 2015
Mendes’ tweeted reply to Bieber indicates he appreciated Bieber’s message.
Thanks man! Means a lot!!! @justinbieber https://t.co/ZGUG5wJiSb
— Shawn Mendes (@ShawnMendes) September 17, 2015
Bieber offered a simple “anytime” back to Mendes’ reply.
@ShawnMendes anytime
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 17, 2015
On Thursday, Bieber Instagrammed a screenshot of Mendes’ April-released debut album Handwritten , with the track set on Shawn’s current single “Stitches.”
Alongside his caption, Bieber praised, “Shawn I checked out the music and I’m so proud! So glad to see another boy from Canada crushin it. #canadiansdoitbetter.”
https://instagram.com/p/7vSkCJgvjO/
The post received over 300,000 likes in under one hour, and they’re still rising. Bieber has 38 million-plus Instagram followers and over 67 million on Twitter. So it’s definitely a big deal for Mendes to get a slot on the Biebs’ page.
Bieber’s reach-out to Mendes comes after an orgy of clickbait media assumption-making speculating that the Biebs shaded Mendes in a recent radio show interview, when he replied, “Who’s Shawn Mendes?” to a question about the 17-year-old.
Bieber sat down last week with Ralph Aversa, the host of New York radio station 95.5’s Ralphie Tonight show, as part of promo for his new smash hit, “What Do You Mean?” At one point during their chat, the pop prince was asked if he had any advice for Mendes.
To which, Bieber looked around the room with a confused expression on his face, before asking the now-infamous question, “Who’s Shawn Mendes?”
After Aversa clued the singer in on Shawn’s achievements, Justin confirmed, “No, I don’t know him. But I will check him out, for sure.”
To Bieber’s fans, his visible bafflement over Mendes came across as genuine ignorance. Mendes isn’t a household name, and the idea that two artists should know each other because they hail from the same country is obviously ludicrous.
Regardless, the rest of the entertainment news cycle went for broke. A slew of outlets boldly declared in headlines that Bieber had iced out Mendes and couldn’t possibly not know of him.
Amid the gleeful stampede of a numerous media outlets, Mendes was tapped for a public comment on Wednesday. Speaking to BBC Radio 1, Mendes dished, “We haven’t met, but I guess he just doesn’t know [me],” Mendes said in the interview.
He continued, “I’m definitely a fan of him. I looked up to him for a while, but I guess he just doesn’t know who I am. We’ll have to let him know.”
To recap: Bieber now knows of Mendes and is psyched that another Canadian is “crushin it.” Meanwhile, Mendes seems happy as Christmas to be recognized by someone he is a fan of. In short: it’s a perfectly Canadian ending to much ado about nothing.
Move on Internet.
[Images via WENN.com]