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Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes recently released a hit collaboration, in the form of “Monster,” a song from Mendes’ new studio album “Wonder.” The two pop stars have been compared to one another for years — but it might not be clear when, exactly, they met one another. Mendes, for one, doesn’t buy that Bieber said he didn’t know who Mendes was in 2015.
In a recent interview with The Project, an Australian talk show, Mendes took umbrage with a 2015 video clip of Bieber saying he didn’t know who Mendes was. Mendes revealed that he and Bieber have since discussed that clip.
“He tried to explain to me he didn’t know who I was then and I don’t believe him,” Mendes said.
Mendes Explains the Origin Story for His Hit Collaboration With Bieber
During his interview with The Project, Mendes talked about his recent single, “Monster,” which features a collaboration with Bieber.
Mendes said, “We’ve known each other for a few years but for some reason during the pandemic we ended up becoming kind of closer than ever before.” Mendes had written the song three years earlier, he explained. He showed it to Bieber, who “connected” with the song and thought it was “really beautiful.”
Bieber even contributed another verse to the song, Mendes revealed, though he didn’t say which one it was.
The growing friendship between Bieber and Mendes might not surprise fans. They were both child stars, a rare connection that Mendes acknowledged during his interview on The Project. “Both of us were famous at a young age and I think it’s interesting when people put you up on a pedestal because it messes with your head a bit,” he said.
Mendes Says Bieber Taught Him How to Navigate Fame
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mendes said that Bieber’s experience navigating fame has taught him how to navigate it himself.
“He’s gone through a lot and I feel like he’s really come out on the other end in a place where he realizes how much of a blessing it is to do what we do for a living,” Mendes said to the network. “And on top of that, he also realizes that there is darkness and there’s heavy things that happen in our career. But the truth is that in any industry it’s the same thing. And I feel like from him, there’s this constant conversation of like, ‘I’m grateful, we’re blessed, look at what’s going on around us.'”
Mendes went on,
“And I even woke up this morning and I had a lot on my schedule and I reminded myself like, ‘Oh, all I’m doing is getting on a Zoom call to be like I made an album about things that I love. And talk about things that mean something to me.’ And really, comparatively to what I could be doing, I’m doing something that is from heaven.”
As for Bieber, he celebrated his friendship with Mendes in a recent Instagram post. Alongside a photo of the two of them on the set for “Monster,” Bieber wrote, “What a great human being! @shawnmendes thanks for letting me be on this song with you”