Song of the Week: ‘Monster’ by Shawn Mendes & Justin Bieber

Happy Musical Monday everyone! A few weeks ago, we brought back our segment, Song of the Week. Last week, we played ‘obvious’ by Ariana Grande on repeat and now, we’ve moved on to Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes’ new collab.

It’s hard to believe that there was a time when Justin Bieber didn’t know who Shawn Mendes was. That clip of Justin Bieber saying, “Who’s Shawn Mendes?” has only gotten more popular over the past week.

Their new song, “Monster” is more than just seeing two Canadian heartthrobs sing together, but the song’s pretty catchy too. The lyrics reflect back on their careers in the music industry, as both were fairly similar. They both rose to fame rather quickly when they were teenagers. Justin made it big with his first single “One Time“, which he released when he was just 13 years old. Then, in 2014, Shawn Mendes’ first song, “Life of the Party” came out after he got famous singing covers on Vine. And he was only 16 years old at the time.

The Meaning Behind the Song

While both had dreams of making music and performing, it also put a lot of pressure on them to be perfect at a very young age. They sing about how the public’s criticized every public decision they made. My personal favorite lyrics of the song are:

I had big dreams of doin’ shows and making memories

Made some bad moves tryin’ to act cool, upset by their jealousy, uh

Lifting me up (Lifting me up), lifting me up (Yeah)

And tearing me down (Down), tearing me down (Down, down, yeah)

I’ll take responsibility for everything I’ve done (Yeah)

Holding it against me like you’re the holy one (Yeah)

So, if you haven’t already heard the song, give it a listen below. I’ve had it on repeat since it came out Thursday night.