Quarantine Zombies: Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello (Shawmila Update) + Everything That Went Wrong In The Romance Era and Listening to Shawn's album for the first time!
(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello became an explosive couple in Hollywood when they first started dating in the summer of 2019. They started off on such a cliche fake-public-relationship (PR) to the point where everyone was calling out their BS. They even made headlines for possibly being a fake PR! What did we do? We actually confirmed that they were indeed a FAKE PR! However, one of the best.
Shawmila is so beautifully crafted it brings tears to my eyes. You see, so many people think I hate these random celebrities, but the truth is: I am a fan of the work that goes into creating these perfect celebrity couples that has all the kids in their feels.
“But they spent quarantine together!”
“But they were so lowkey in this cafe and we only got fan taken photos!”
I’ll say what I always say—if it’s public information, chances are you were meant to see it regardless of their circumstance.
I haven’t written about these two since September so there’s a lot to catch up on!
If you’re expecting me to say, “Guess what? Shawn and Camila have finally fallen in love through their work relationship and are REALLY dating” then sorry to disappoint you. Shawn and Camila are just as fake as they were last summer and as they were when an article leaked in advance prior to an award show about how “steamy” they are on stage.
If this is your first Shawmila post to read, then I suggest you PAUSE (but come back of course) and read about our first post exposing them because it requires all the necessary information you need to know to understand these two.
Quick history refresh if you haven’t read the first Shawmila post in a long time: Shawn and Camila were set up to be a fake PR under a legit contract in order to:
bring relevancy to both stars by making them appear more desirable and interesting
conceal rumors such as Camila’s racist past (which is actually a fact) and stop assumptions on Shawn’s sexuality.
Together, they spawned a #1 Grammy-nominated hit called Senorita, which was quite successful!
Now our source tells us that there were several plans to end Shawn and Camila fake-relationship, but Camila’s team wanted to make sure that she was falling upon a legit audience and not just an audience that was only interested in her because of Shawn. This is a decision that is always taken when it comes to PR. In order to have a successful PR, one star has to be bigger than the other and in the case of Shawmila, it’s Shawn (even though I find him unbearably boring and bland, but sweet boy!!).
Could it be any more obvious? // Getty Images
So if their relationship were to end and Camila flops, then it means that her audience’s attention span is only awake when Shawn is in the picture.
This brings us to the Romance era.
Often when an era flops, the fans will harass the management and criticize their promotional skills and branding. That’s what happened when Camila’s Romance album flopped (and it did, we’ll get to that). However, Camila and her team both did everything in their power to have the most amazing album rollout plan. The audience was just not interested!
On September 1, 2019, Camila posted a teaser clip on Instagram which revealed the name of the album. Then she had a different installment revealed on September 5. By the end of October, she announced that the album was complete. Then she started teasing the album on November 12, 2019, when she posted parts of the album’s cover art. She then formally announced the release of the album the next day. She released the album’s tracklist on November 29 and the album was finally released on December 6. It was also available for preorders on November 15.
Camila via IG story
You know what that is? A rollout plan. They had a plan to tease the album, build hype, then release the album. The album’s rollout wasn’t like “here’s a lead single and the album is coming out next week! (cough cough, Team Bieber).
During this time, Camila released singles during September and was going on many promotional appearances from September until December. She was performing her new songs Shameless, Liar, Cry For Me, Easy, and Living Proof. She even later released My Oh My officially on January 6, 2020. She was BOOKED and READY!
she didn’t have to serve this hard
She had the best promotional slots accompanied by interviews, fan interaction, social media, promo, and etc. etc. It was constructed so beautifully I literally thought that she was about to have her 1989 era like Taylor Swift and explode internationally.
I may not like Camila that much because she’s a racist lying snake, but I will not deny how much I loved the Romance album and how much her live performances slapped. Honestly, what pop girl did it like her? Her performances were TOP TIER!! It pains me to admit it.
“Well, how did Romance flop?”
The album debuted and peaked at #3 on Billboard US, #6 in Australia, #14 in the UK, #33 in Japan, #55 in Greece, #52 in France, and so on. The only place it was #1 was in Canada and that’s not really a major music market.
Her music videos served smh
The singles did even worse. This era had SEVEN official singles. What is a single supposed to do? Promote the album. If it’s not promoting the album (even if it’s a successful single), then it’s not doing its job.
Billboard US peaks for her singles:
Shameless: #60
Liar: #52
Cry For Me: didn’t chart (it was #15 on the Billboard Bubble UNDER the Hot 100 chart aka it was #115 on Billboard).
Easy: didn’t chart (it was #10 on the Billboard Bubble UNDER the Hot 100 chart aka it was #110 on Billboard).
Living Proof: didn’t chart on Billboard or the Bubbling under chart. it charted in only 5 countries worldwide.
My Oh, My feat. DaBaby: #12 (finally…. it also had an additional remix and dance + lyric video).
First Man: #94 (after a performance at the Grammys)
What went wrong?
Senorita with Shawn hit #1 and the other highest hit Camila got from this era is #12 with DaBaby. What was Camila’s other #1 hit? Oh right, Havana feat. Young Thug). Ah… it’s starting to dawn us. She is only famous or relevant BY ASSOCIATION and that is a very VERY dangerous career realm to be in (ask Selena Gomez).
Why is it that her only hits are features that aren’t able to sell the album? Do you know who actually got out of this dangerous career slump? Ariana Grande. When Ariana first debuted, all her hits were features and the songs that weren’t featured, didn’t even chart in the top ten of Billboard. However, she managed to get out of that slump when she released her Sweetener album and even defined her individuality more when she released the Thank U, Next album.
What does this have to do with Shawn? A LOT.
Tyja, Agny / BACKGRID
The Original Plan
You see, the plan consisted of promoting Senorita with Shawn and then dropping Romance with Shawn NOT IN THE PICTURE. If you remember, there wasn’t a lot of Shawmila during the Romance promo. This was done iNTENTIONALLY to see how Camila will do without Shawn in the picture. If she did absolutely amazing, they would agree on a breakup. If not, Shawn will be ringed in some more.
such a great performance ugh / KEVIN WINTER
As we can tell, Romance didn’t do so well. Sure Camila is a great streaming force, but streams don’t bring the artist that much money. Throughout the years, the streaming industry has adapted to make more money for the artists since everyone was about to go broke soon with the way it was going, but even then it’s not enough. Streaming doesn’t always equal relevance and that’s what stans have a hard time understanding.
Musicians will remain relevant if there is some sort of emotional hold on the fans so they can stick around. With Camila, she did have somewhat of an emotional hold on her fans, but she didn’t reach the general public with that. Instead, they saw right through her.
She thought she could capitalize on snaking away from Fifth Harmony and doing them dirty forever, huh?
Camila is a performer whether that’s on stage, in close sessions with fans, or even during an interview. She is a performer. She says what people want her to say. There is no authenticity with her.
I’ll tell you right now, the only time Camila has been authentic is through her music. She does genuinely love music and her lyrics. The emotion that she puts on is solely through her music. That’s why I love her music. I actually find some authenticity there, but Camila as a person? Forget about it.
If you’re wondering why there is no crazy tea between Shawn and Camila it’s because they are a strict BUSINESS relationship. There is some tea which we’ll get to, but right now I keep rambling about music, sales, and whatnot because that’s the FOUNDATION that this relationship is built on. Everything revolves around the chart outcome and that dictates Shawmila’s relationship status.
Somehow, Shawn has an established fanbase that doesn’t revolve around who he’s kissing.
His self titled third studio album debuted #1 on Billboard and it became his third #1 album. In My Blood, the lead single peaked #11 on Billboard.
Lost In Japan: #64
Youth: #65
Where Were You in the Morning?: didn’t chart (it was a promotional single)
Nervous: didn’t chart (it was #8 on the Billboard Bubble UNDER the Hot 100 chart aka it was #8 on Billboard).
If I Can’t Have You: #2 (finally wtf, but I hate this song don’t get it twisted)
Senorita: #1 (this was released as the second single from the deluxe album, but it was 7th overall)
I didn’t know Shawn was pulling these low numbers until I looked it up. I always thought because I see his fans hating on Justin Bieber, he was pulling better numbers, but now I’m just ???? What is it with stan twitter and their ability to be so loud and hateful yet their fave artists aren’t doing that hot? Anyways whatever.
As we can tell, Shawn had something to benefit from the PR with Camila as well.
Btw, I was listening to Romance while writing this post, but now I’m going to check out Shawn’s album. By the time I finish writing this post, I should have played the majority of the album and I’ll give you my thoughts at the end. I keep calling him boring but lemme give him a chance instead of being a hypocrite omg.
ANYWAYS!!!!
Now that we have the logicists behind Shawmila’s work relationship, let’s actually talk about their PERSONAL relationship.
Their Personal Relationship
August 2019 // GC IMAGES
As I said in their first post, they were always good friends but Shawn was starting to get annoyed with Camila because she’s pretty annoying. Camila has that suffocating factor. It’s like can you move?? I’d like to breathe. In September, I told you what my source said which was Shawn is practically suffering in this relationship and he isn’t feeling her on a personal level.
Here’s an excerpt from my post on that:
Despite not being made public, Shawn and Camila have had their issues behind closed doors. It always stemmed from Camila being problematic. Whether that’s with her racist or insensitive remarks, or her ongoing alleged drug experimentation, Shawn and her have clashed several times.
Experiences like these will be made public once the PR ends and Shawn is able to breathe.
In that post, I talk more about how their perfect PR is crafted beautifully from a business standpoint.
The day Camila released her new songs, she performed with Shawn on his stadium tour.
All PR.
- Album Listening Session: Lost In Japan is a bop omg ?? none of you were gonna tell me I was sleeping on it?
The thing about Camila and Shawn is that they are FRIENDS, but you know when you get along great with someone so you decided to move in with them and then everything starts going wrong? This is what’s happening here.
Trigger warning: white people bein nasty
//
Remember this video?
There was a whole PR scheme behind that and you should definitely read about what I exposed there.
Then of course there was that whole thing when a rapper said that Camila is racist and is fake dating Shawn because he’s gay. She also said that she slept with Shawn because Camila is racist.
Shortly after, Camila had a whole racist scandal in December 2019 when her past was brought up. And no not the same past that we already knew about… a different past. Either way, I covered the whole thing.
Going back to their personal relationship, you can see in videos how they only put on the show in front of fans or cameras.
In the video down below, you can see that as soon as they pass the crowd, they STOP holding hands, Shawn goes on his phone and stomps away to the point where Camila is chasing after him. By the end of the video, Shawn is waaaaay ahead of Camila.
That whole interaction is weird and that’s coming from me, someone who can look at the whole story and be like “it’s not what you think.” No, this is exactly what you think.
- Album Listening Session: Where Were You In The Morning? and Nervous are so good.
This next video is funny.
As you can see Shawn and Camila are walking away from the public and into a parking garage which I don’t think they’re aware that they’re being filmed. Shawn is storming in front of her with Camila doubling her speed to just catch up to him. You can see him turn his head to say one or two things while she is practically out of breath to hear him.
One could argue that they’re in a rush, but why is it whenever they don’t know that they’re being filmed, we see Shawn stomping away from her?
The video continues and in this portion of the video, you can see that they have arrived at whatever destination they were at because they are seen leaving the car. As they are approaching the exit of the garage, you can see Camila run to him, put her arms around him and they start talking and smiling as if they’re getting ready for the cameras.
What were they preparing for? This outing of course!
September 19, 2019 / Backgrid
Suddenly they’re hand in hand and Camila isn’t running after Shawn who’s stomping off. Oh no! The photos that are getting published show them HAPPY :) and in LOVE :)
Maybe they were running late for the paparazzi who was waiting for them?
Backgrid
Speaking of which, when they first debuted their relationship and they were out frolicking the streets of San Francisco, a family was taking a group photo and behind them, you can see Shawn and Camila walking as their ONE HIRED photographer was taking pictures of them.
Now the HILARIOUS part is the fact that NONE of the San Francisco photos of them on the bridge came out professional. They were all “blurry” and looked like they were “fan taken.”
Interesting.
- Album Listening Session: Particular Taste is a bop. I love the production! Also, Why is so cute and soft.
The rest of their planned photo ops from that day alongside their beach day is in the post which I first linked above.
We’ve seen how Shawn and Camila act when they don’t think they’re being filmed, so how do they act when they know the cameras are across the street?
Check out this video from TMZ.
Also, they both look so weird. I was like is this even them?? But they were photographed a lot from that day.
UPDATE—This video is NOT them. Thank you to the readers who pointed it out and confirmed my suspicions. “They” did look different LMAO. I can’t believe they acted exactly like them they even got ME confused.
Whoever these people are, they got the look ON POINT.
James Devaney/GC Images
Another thing about Shawn and Camila is that they are always making eye contact with the paparazzi.
- Album Listening Session: Perfectly Wrong makes my heart ache omg he didn’t have to snap like that. His collab with Khalid, Youth, is so soothing.
For Shawn and Camila, we got the poses and it makes the fans go “awww they’re so siLLY and quIRKY” but when you see the video… it’s like what crack are you two on?
And that brings us to Shawn and Camila during quarantine!
Quarantine Zombies
During the peak of the coronavirus where the cases were at an all-time high in the US, Shawn and Camila were seen strolling the streets every single day. This upset people because celebrities are all like “everyone please stay home!!!” yet they’re out on strolls every other day
Image: Backgrid
Guaranteed they were walking in what seemed to be a private neighborhood, it wasn’t exactly a good look to give to fans that listen to their idols when the virus was at its peak. And you know, some fans don’t have the luxury of living in private or quiet neighborhoods.
This pandemic really showed us which celebrities are the thirstest for attention.
Not only were they out during the pandemic, but they also looked like literal ZOMBIES ON CRACK. See for yourself.
They are seen walking with their eyes closed and everyone was like “is it acid that they’re doing??” LMAO it was so funny. Someone on Twitter even edited the video and added the Squidward sound effects that his shoes make when he walks or something like that.
When I asked my source about this she literally said the following:
They called the paparazzi. It’s what they do. I’m not clear on the arrangement but their reps had them photographed for x amount of times so they were out during the times that they were told. You were telling me last time that all their photos are published from one photo agency so I think if you check the photo agency that was publishing their quarantine pictures, it should still be the same one. Maybe they got a discount.
Discount LMAO.
But yes as you can see from the tag on the gif above, it says “BACKGRID” which is often the photo agency that publishes ALL THEIR PHOTOS. If you remember from my first Shawmila post, all of their first photos together were published by Backgrid. They often switch between Backgrid and Mega photos (that published their beach pictures), but it’s something to note.
Cama / MiamiPIXX / BACKGRID
One of my readers linked me to a post by BlindGossip. Any veteran reader of mine knows that I don’t use BlindGossip as a source nor do I read any blog like theirs, but I am open to being told what they’re saying when you guys bring it up. So they published a post talking about how they did indeed hire photographers and they had them going UP and DOWN the streets several times until they got the perfect and unplanned looking shot.
Maybe that’s why they looked so tired in that video, it was probably their 84th walk down the street LMAO.
Cama / MiamiPIXX / BACKGRID
Also, a lot of the times celebrities will do something “weird” because people will talk about and it will go viral. This started happening a lot more as social media started becoming the huge force it is today. Considering that celebrities weren't able to go out and dine or do something scandalous for attention during the pandemic, subtle things like this does the job.
And did it for Shawmila? Of course. So many tweets about them went viral and everyone was talking about them which = mission accomplished.
THEIR BREAKUP RUMORS
Back in January, there were many rumors that Shawn and Camila broke up backstage at the Grammys and this happened because they arrived separately, didn’t sit together, and didn’t walk the carpet together either.
STEVE GRANITZ/GETTY IMAGES
After shoving their tongues down each other throat’s everywhere they go, people were like “why aren’t they all over each other like they were the past 36383 months??”
Of course, this is another business tactic that goes into the technical aspects of a PR as I was explaining earlier. Camila’s team was trying to brand her as her own person which is why she performed a song about her father and kept the appearances only on HER because the Grammys is a huge night in music so celebrities will often capitalize on that and try to play their cards right.
So this was done for 2 reasons:
establish individuality for each artist
stir up some mystery: why aren’t they arriving together? The more mystery, the more they will be talked about.
However, they were seen chilling and dancing at the after-party together.
Backgrid
Ah, the photos are still being published through Backgrid.
Side note: many celebrity photos are published through Backgrid. it is a photo agency after all and it doesn’t necessarily mean that every photo published by them means that the celebrity called the paps. However, it is something to note when 9 out of 10 photos of Shawmila, are published by the same agency.
Going back to their breakup rumors that night, when talking about whether or not they broke up, someone is going to ask “why?” And this will lead to what, my smart children? It will lead to the discussion of “well Camila performed ‘First man’ and she didn’t sit with Shawn.” All of this is starting discussion and talk and believe it or not, it’s free promotion for Camila and her song.
After all, why didn’t they sit together? They were nominated together for Senorita. It’s all business tactics!
Nowadays, some random website is claiming that Shawn and Camila are broken up. I don’t know how reputable this site is, but it’s something to mention.
I asked my source and she said that Shawn and Camila’s teams are planning a breakup, but they don’t know which direction to take it yet.
As I said, they’re in this career slump. Romance didn’t do so hot and everyone was paying attention to Camila because of Shawn. Plus she had that racist scandal blow up and Shawn’s team surely don’t want her near him or that encouraging people to bring up HIS past (there is one) so it’s a bunch of “what ifs?” right now.
I personally don’t think they’ll keep Shawn around for either of their next eras, but to be honest, who knows? They work great as a PR and even if Camila doesn’t have that individuality solidified yet, it’s something that can always be worked on.
They might even string them along for another collab but what my source was telling me is that they’re all trying to figure out how to play their cards right for this next era.
Summary
Shawn and Camila never became a “real” couple.
There was going to be a Shawmila breakup during the Romance era if it went well, but it didn’t.
Their quarantine photos were all staged.
Their relationship is at stake right now and it’s being considered for termination, but with the pandemic and its effect on the music industry, all cards are up in the air right now.
What did you guys think about this post? I hope you enjoyed it! There wasn’t that much “hot drama” between the two considering they are a business relationship, so I elaborated a lot more on their PR technicalities.
Comment down below your thoughts and questions. You can comment anonymously so take advantage of that! I will be replying back.