A summer of love has faded into a winter of heartbreak for Shawn Mendes.
On Wednesday, the 23-year-old released “It’ll Be Okay,” an emotional ballad, which comes shortly after his split from girlfriend and fellow singer Camila Cabello.
The piano-backed, slow tempo melody of the track is only overshadowed by the somber lyrics that detail the evolution of realizing the end of relationship. The song starts with Shawn questioning the situation as he sings, “Are we gonna make it? / Is this gonna hurt?”
By the end of the song, though, the Canadian singer seems to have come to terms with what is inevitable, that “the future we dreamed of is fading to black.”
He sings in the chorus, “If you tell me you’re leaving / I’ll make it easy / It’ll be okay / If we can’t stop the bleeding / We don’t have to fix it / We don’t have to stay / I will love you either way.”
Shawn first teased “It’ll Be Okay” on Tuesday, sharing a 12-second clip of the song to Instagram. In a following post he wrote, “It feels like I [haven’t] truly connected with you guys in a while. I miss you [white heart emoji] I hope you love this song.”
The sentimental record comes just two weeks after Shawn and Camila announced that they were breaking up after two years together.
“Hey guys, we’ve decided to end our romantic relationship but our love for one another as humans is stronger than ever,” the “Señorita” collaborators shared in announcements on their respective Instagram Stories.
“[W]e started our relationship as best friends and will continue to be best friends,” they continued. “[W]e so appreciate your support from the beginning and moving forward.”
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