Last month, music streaming platform Spotify released a list of the most influential¹ artists under 25. Unsurprisingly, American singer Ariana Grande, 23, and Canadian Justin Bieber, 22, were among the top five.

上个月，音乐流媒体平台Spotify 发布了一份25岁以下最具影响力的艺人名单。23岁的美国歌手爱莉安娜.格兰德以及22岁的加拿大歌手贾斯汀.比伯都毫无意外地位列榜单前五。

But ahead of them, on top of the list, is fresh-faced Shawn Mendes, who started his career as an internet sensation but is trying to prove he’s a serious musician.

但新面孔肖恩.蒙德兹却一举超越了这两人，位居该榜单榜首。蒙德兹一开始作为网红出道，但他却力图证明自己是个严谨认真的音乐人。

The 18-year-old Canadian singer from *suburban Toronto first started to build an audience in 2013 through video-sharing app Vine, where he uploaded a six-second clip of himself covering Bieber’s As Long As You Love Me.

这位18岁的加拿大歌手来自多伦多郊区。2013年，他通过视频分享应用Vine上传了一段翻唱比伯歌曲《只要你爱我就好》的6秒视频。从那时起，他便积累起了自己的粉丝。

His strong social media presence soon brought him to the attention of the record industry and by 2014, Mendes had signed a major-label deal with Island Records. The following year saw the singer release his first studio album Handwritten.

他在社交媒体上的抢眼表现也引起了唱片行业的注意。2014年，蒙德兹与小岛唱片签署了一单大额合约。在接下来的一年中，这位歌手发布了第一张录音室专辑《手创音乐》。

The full-length album was well received, with MTV calling it “the first milestone²” for Mendes’ success. Stitches, one of the title songs, has over 500 million streams on Spotify this year alone.

整张专辑都大受好评，MTV还称其为蒙德斯成功之路的“第一座里程碑“。而专辑主打歌曲之一的《缝合》仅今年一年便在Spotify 上有5亿流量。

Given his loyal fan base and the huge popularity of Stitches, it’s easy to imagine the various ways Mendes’ second album might have turned out–as a shiny pop production, for instance, or a *thumping, trendy *foray into electronic dance music.

蒙德兹忠实的粉丝群和歌曲《缝合》的大受欢迎也令人不难想象他第二张专辑的多变曲风——耀眼的流行大作，或是一次对电子舞曲极佳的新潮尝试。

“Big record, lots of fans–the lane was wide open,” Mendes told Los Angeles Times. He briefly³ entertained those ideas himself, meeting with some of the industry’s most reliable hitmakers.

“销量佳、粉丝多——眼前的道路正在向我敞开，”蒙德兹在接受《洛杉矶时报》采访时表示。他将这些想法暂存心中，并见了数位业内最有名望的音乐制作人。

Yet he ended up taking a different path when producing Illuminate⁴, which was released on Sept 23.

他的新专辑《照亮》于今年9月23日发行，然而，制作这张专辑时，他最终还是选择了一条与众不同的路。

The teenager turned to respected songwriters and producers, including Tobias Jesso Jr., a fellow Canadian known for co-writing When We Were Young with Adele, and Jake Gosling, Ed Sheeran’s closest collaborator⁵, who oversaw⁶ the British artist’s Grammy-winning Thinking Out Loud.

这位青少年曾向数位负有盛名的词曲创作人和制作人求教。比如，曾和阿黛尔合写歌曲《年少之时》的加拿大音乐人小托拜厄斯.杰索、以及艾德.希兰最亲密的合作伙伴杰克.高斯林。后者曾监制了这位英国音乐人的歌曲《自言自语》，并助他夺下了格莱美大奖。

Recalling the demos Mendes sent him, Gosling said he could hear “an honesty and a maturity⁷” that made it clear the singer had decided⁸ by then what he wanted to do with the record.

高斯林在蒙德兹寄给他的录音小样中，听见了“一种诚实与成熟之声”。这也表明，从那时起，这位歌手就已经决定了在这张专辑中要做的事情。

“The [maturity] was really coming through,” the producer said, “not only in what he was singing about but in the way he was delivering the songs.”

“这些歌曲本身以及他表现歌曲的方式，都在传达着一种真正的成熟之声。”这位制作人说道。

Mendes was also satisfied with the new album more than his debut⁹ one, which was pieced together in a rush to *capitalize on his exploding internet fame.

相较于他的首张专辑，蒙德兹对这张新专辑更为满意。为了能将蒙德兹爆炸式的网络热度转化为资本，他的首张专辑不过是将歌曲匆忙拼凑在一起。

“I tried my best, and that’s what I came up with,” he told the Los Angeles Times, referring to the earlier record with a note of apology in his voice.

“我尽力了，那是我能做到的全部，”他在接受《洛杉矶时报》采访时提到了先前的那张专辑，语气中带有一丝歉意。

“I feel like this [Illuminate] was my first time really writing, my first time really singing and creating,” Mendes said. “I wanted to prove to the outside world there’s a reason I have 13 million followers¹⁰.”

“我感觉《照亮》这张专辑是我自己真正首次写歌、唱歌以及创作，”蒙德兹说道。“我想要向外界证明，我的实力足以拥有1300万粉丝。”