Do we like Shawn Mendes?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Kind and consistent in what we could find, with one old stain he apologised for and one contested moment on Gaza.
Mendes is the Canadian pop singer whose young fanbase got its own cause in 2019, when he launched The Shawn Mendes Foundation. Billboard reported it had already raised over US$1 million at launch, with focus areas including children's healthcare, sustainability, mental health, human rights and anti-bullying. First campaigns were with Toronto's SickKids hospital and the environmental nonprofit REVERB.
The stain on the record came in August 2019, when a fan raised old social media posts at a Q&A. Complex reported the posts, mostly from 2012 and 2013, included comments about race, some since deleted. His first answer was vague. Then he posted an apology saying he was “so sorry” and that the posts “do not represent who I am”.
On the harm test, that is the only mark we found, and it dates from when he was a young teenager. An apology only counts if behaviour changes afterwards, and what we found since points the other way. In 2018 he talked about supporting the LGBTQ+ community and backed his trans songwriting collaborator, Teddy Geiger, saying people should “Let somebody be and feel and live how they want to live.” He even admitted he'd once used the wrong pronoun and that learning takes time.
Gaza is where opinion splits. In late August 2025, at a Lisbon show, he said turning pain and suffering into hatred of Jewish people as a whole is wrong, and hatred in general isn't the way. Then in January 2026 he played a benefit that raised US$5.5 million for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund and the Sudanese American Physicians Association. Where you land depends on whether you read the Lisbon remarks as a balanced call for humanity or as too cautious.
Lately it's been quiet. In June 2026 he put out a limited-edition vinyl for ten years of Treat You Better, with a previously unreleased live version on the B-side. We found no confirmed new album or tour, only aggregator chatter, so we're not repeating it.
The good stuff is concrete. In March 2020 his foundation gave $175,000 to SickKids for COVID-19 prevention and screening, and the hospital's CEO publicly thanked him. The January 2026 benefit line-up also included Chappell Roan, Clairo and Maggie Rogers, with Bella Hadid and Pedro Pascal co-hosting.