Shawn Mendes revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday (May 17) that he was nervous about meeting the British royal family when he was asked to perform for Queen Elizabeth II’s 92nd birthday. Well, who wouldn’t be?
The 19-year-old singer’s family is British, so the opportunity he had was a “massive deal” for them, as he explained. But when Mendes was backstage waiting to perform, he shared an awkward 10-minute silence with the Queen when she walked up right next to him.
“You can’t say anything! You’re not allowed to speak to her unless she speaks to you first,” he told host Ellen DeGeneres, detailing their “super weird” encounter. “She didn’t look at me at all. I looked over a couple of times.
But the “Stitches” singer had other regrets when meeting the royals, particularly Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle. Mendes describes seeing the couple in a room and wanting to approach the Suits actress, because they’re both Canadian. “The second they kind of felt me coming, I just turned around and my body went numb and I was like, ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do it.’”
Mendes will be performing “Youth” with Khalid at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards this Sunday (May 20). Watch his Ellen interview below.