The world might have heard girls and boys in Canada screaming Monday when it was announced that two of their pop stars are joining forces. Shawn Mendes announced on social media that his duet with Justin Bieber , titled “Monster,” is dropping Friday, November 20. Mendes and Bieber made the big announcement with a 13-second video with an eerie sounding instrumental in the background. The video showed various outdoor foggy clips of staircases, trees, and lights. Mendes captioned the video, “#MONSTER friday nov 20th @justinbieber. Next single from #WONDER.”
As expected, fans went wild. One commented, “HOW DO I BREATHE” on Mendes’ post. Under wrote, “the duo to save 2020.” Record producer Benny Blanco commented, “I’m screaming.“ The collaboration will bring some middle ground to the artist’s more extreme fans who can be a little possessive. For example, one Mendes fan wasn’t too excited to hear about the collaboration and said Bieber would “ruin” him. They tweeted, “I love Shawn Mendes and honestly it’s the worst thing… Nobody wants Justin around Shawn, he’s just ruining him.” Another fan tweeted, “Justin Bieber went from ’Who is Shawn Mendes’ to collabing with Shawn.”
The tweet was referring to an infamous Mariah Carey like moment that occurred in 2015 when Bieber claimed he didn’t know who Mendes was, despite the major success of his single “Stitches.” Bieber was already in his prime and Mendes‘s growing career was always being compared to Biebs. In an interview with New York’s 95.5 PLJ the host, Ralphie Aversa brought up the then 17-year-old Mendes to draw some comparisons and ask Bieber if he had any advice for his fellow Canadian. Bieber responded with a confused look, “Who’s Shawn Mendes?” “Oh! He’s on Island. 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.” Aversa replied. “Nice. Nice. Good for him,” Bieber said. “Oh! Oh wow, so you don’t even…I thought for sure you might because he’s also from southern Ontario. ” Aversa replied. ”No, I don’t know him, but I will check him out, for sure,” said Bieber. While it’s possible Bieber really didn’t know who the singer was, Mendes fans doubted it and accused Bieber of throwing shade.
“Monster” is the second track to be released in Mendes’ upcoming album “Wonder.” He previously released the lead song and title track on the album, “Wonder” in October. It will be Mendes’ fourth album and is set to drop December 4 via Island Records.
