Ahead of his appearance on Saturday Night Live on May 4, Shawn Mendes has released a brand-new single entitled “If I Can’t Have You.”
The single dropped early Friday morning, along with a very sombre music video shot in black and white.
Mendes, 20, took the time to call into Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio show to talk about the song and how it came to be.
“I’m going through this phase right now where I’m testing out all the styles I can possibly be doing,” he said. “Pop is what’s in my blood — no pun intended,” he said, calling back to his 2018 hit “In My Blood.”
Mendes also revealed that he would perform the song live for the first time during his SNL performance.
“In the last six months, I wrote about 45 songs, and they’re all over the place and different vibes. This is the one consistently, every time I played for myself and for friends and family, was giving people that smile,” he added.
Just before the “If I Can't Have You” music video premiered, Mendes chatted with fans in a YouTube chat where he answered some of their questions and revealed that The 1975 actually helped inspire him on the new track.
He wrote, “Truthfully my inspiration behind the song musically was from The 1975! Not to say it sounds crazy like them but I was obsessed with their album while making this song!”
Watch Sean Mendes' “If I Can't Have You” video below.
