Chapter One Life of the Party building fan sites devoted to him making their own tributes Vine isn’t a logical path to stardom Shawn admits but it worked for him People could say Well it doesn’t take much talent to put a six-second video up he told the New York Times I would argue that it does because you only have six seconds to impress somebody he said And if you can do that in six seconds then you’ve done a good job He started gaining momentum across other social media platforms too including Instagram Facebook Twi er and yes YouTube where fans could find more than six seconds of Shawn at a time It was on YouTube that he got the a ention of now-manager Andrew Gertler who was searching online for artists covering A Great Big World’s smash hit Say Something and randomly stumbled across Shawn’s version Gertler rushed to sign Shawn and soon there was a record deal in place with Island Records There was something about him that just struck me as different from every other kid on social media Gertler told AXS com Not only was his voice unique but he had a natural charisma that I don’t think you can learn Something just draws people to him It’s that relatability that fans echo when they talk about him too He really does feel like the superstar next door He could You only have six seconds to impress somebody on Vine And if you can do that in six seconds then you’ve done a good job 10 SHAWN MENDES SUPERSTAR NEXT DOOR
Shawn performs for his Chapter XXX hometown crowd on XXXX WE Day 2015 in Toronto SHAWN MENDES SUPERSTAR NEXT DOOR 11
Chapter XXX XXXXX Shawn takes home Teen Choice honors 12 SHAWN MENDES SUPERSTAR NEXT DOOR
SHAWN MENDES SUPERSTAR NEXT DOOR 13 Chapter One Life of the Party be their neighbor their classmate their best friend And in many ways Shawn is still a typical teenage guy He plays sports and writes poetry and eats junk food and worries about acne He just also happens to have a surging music career He released his first single Life of the Party in 2014 and it hit big selling almost 150,000 copies in its first week and sailing to 24 on the Billboard charts It was a huge smash for Shawn who hadn’t had any radio play to promote the single None Zilch Nada All the promotion was done through his social media sites We decided to put it online with no marketing or airplay because we wanted to understand his fan base and how it would behave Island head David Massey told Billboard We released the song at 11 15 PM and it was 1 at midnight Within the first 24 hours we had exceeded 100,000 That’s true fan engagement and true conversion from being a fan to pu ing down money WHOLE LOTTA BLING Just 18 and already Shawn has earned a full trophy case Something tells us he’s going to have a whole lot more before he’s through Much Music Awards Kids Choice Teen Choice Awards MTV Europe Awards People’s Choice AwardShorty Award
