Shawn Mendes debuted a new song from his upcoming album Shawn live at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday (Sept. 11) at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Mendes and his band delivered the new tune on a massive rug lined with candles on a smoky stage, giving the whole performance a casual, living-room aura. Titled “Nobody Knows,” the song started out in a slow, folk-rock vein before gradually growing in intensity, reaching an emphatic, impactful climax. Toward the end of the song, Mendes turned away from his adoring fans and faced his drummer, strumming furiously on his acoustic guitar and smiling broadly as his lead electric guitarist ripped off a solo alongside him. The onstage chemistry between Mendes and his band is palpable, and when his drummer turned to the camera with a joyous look on his face at the end, it was hard not to be won over.
Based on Mendes’s VMAs debut of “Nobody Knows,” the singer-songwriter’s musicianship and songcraft is continuing to develop and mature (perhaps he’s been listening to some Leonard Cohen lately?) without losing any of the youthful exuberance that made him a guitar-slinging breakout in the first place.
Prior to Mendes’ VMAs performance, chatter swirled around the fact that Mendes would be performing at an awards show that also boasted performances from not one but two of his exes – Camila Cabello (with whom he topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 with the duet “Señorita”) and Sabrina Carpenter. But his vocally and instrumentally impressive performance easily pushed gossip aside to turn the spotlight back to his music and stagecraft – at least for a while.
Mendes’ fifth album, Shawn, drops Oct. 18. His last studio album, 2020’s Wonder, topped the Billboard 200.
