How The Justins Of Music Have Influenced Shawn Mendes

Shawn Mendes is a total pop-star heartthrob for the teenage crowd. At only 18, he already has an impressively large and dedicated following, one that salivates over every track and social media post the young artist shares. And today's release of his new single "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" is no different.

The Canadian singer debuted the track early this morning and it's already trending on the charts. Since the start of his career, Mendes has been compared to similar artists before him, like fellow Canadian Justin Bieber (who hilariously "I don't know her"'ed the rising star at the beginning of his career), but he reveals that he had a different Justin in mind when he recorded his newest track: Justin Timberlake. Specifically, the Timberlake that was creating hit songs with the legendary producer, Timbaland. (Think "Give It To Me" and "Cry Me a River".) Mendes excitedly told Entertainment Weekly that his latest single is very Timbaland-inspired track, and that he sorta feels like a new version of old JT.

"We wrote the song, cut it, and then the next day I was listening back. There was this empty space after the chorus, and I [imagined] this part, this sample that Timbaland would use," he told EW. "I ordered this guitalele, which is like a baby guitar with nylon strings that sounds like a ukelele. I went over to my buddy and was like, 'I’m just going to play this.' It ended up sounding so badass. It sounds like something you’d hear on an old Justin Timberlake record, right?" A bold statement, but not totally unwarranted.

Mendes also shared his desire to make a song that was dancier than his usual love ballads — and maybe even something that people could get down to. "I wanted to make something that could play in the clubs," he said of his fresh musical transition. "I wanted something people could dance to at parties."

And, of course, his fans are already ga-ga over the track.

Check it out for yourself, below, and let us know what you think. Does Shawn Mendes have you thinking about a young Justin Timberlake?