Shawn Mendes Got His Fame Started On Vine, The App That Died Three Years Ago Today
If you were an avid user of the video platform known for its quick six-second videos then you probably remember the day it was deleted. Not only was it a fun outlet for anyone around the world to post creative and hilarious videos, but it also kickstarted quite a few individuals' careers. That includes Shawn Mendes' Vine fame that began when he uploaded singing videos to a growing base of fans.
The 21-year-old was born and raised in Pickering, Ontario to his parents Karen and Manuel, and younger sister Aaliyah.
He had a pretty normal Canadian childhood, playing hockey and soccer, and even joining his school's glee club.
In June 2012, the singer uploaded his very first video to YouTube. It was a cover of Adele's "Hometown Glory" that he sang opposite his friend Danielle who played the piano.
Vine was launched less than a year later on January 24, 2013.
It pretty quickly picked up speed, becoming a place to endlessly scroll through videos of all sorts of genres.
YouTube stars like David Dobrik, Liza Koshy, and even Logan Paul got their careers started on the platform by posting comical videos and sketches.
But Mendes used the service to share his talent for singing and playing guitar.
According to Variety, by 2014 the singer "racked up nearly a million Vine followers and around 400,000 Twitter followers, all from his parents' house in Pickering, Ontario."
The news outlet also wrote that he was discovered by his manager Andrew Gertler in that same year.
According to MTV, Mendes' Vine account "accumulated over 500,000,000 loops (views) - a.k.a half a BILLION! - in less than four years."
DRUNK. Tell me what songs you guys wanna hear!! 😃😃❤❤#lyall https://t.co/LsXSG3JxXa— Shawn Mendes (@Shawn Mendes) 1378323965.0
In June 2014, he released his first single "Life Of The Party" and a few months later came the song "Something Big."
Vine was officially deleted from all app stores and phones on January 17, 2017.
But since then, Mendes' career has been on the up.
The Illuminate World Tour ran from April to December 2017 following his 2016 album, Illuminate.
After that, he released his self-titled third album in 2018. That was followed by Shawn Mendes: The Tour that went worldwide from March to December 2019.
He also appeared on a 2018 episode of Drop the Mic and a 2019 episode of Saturday Night Live as the musical guest opposite host Adam Sandler.
