Khalid and Shawn Mendes Pay Tribute to Victims of Gun Violence at BBMAs
The two young musicians used the 2018 Billboard Music Awards stage to honor gun violence victims with their new duet, “Youth.”
The performance was announced by “Me, Myself & I” singer Bebe Rexha, who began her introduction by citing the nation’s most recent school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas just this past Friday. She mentioned that students from that very high school had recently joined tens of thousands of others across the country in the protest against gun violence, all to spread the message: “Things must change.”
Khalid wore a blue t-shirt that read “Protect our children,” (in lieu of “Protect our guns”) while Mendes wore a navy sweatshirt emblazoned with the title of the song. The show choir from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School accompanied them on stage–all donning the same sweatshirt as Mendes–to sing the powerfully relevant lyrics, “You can’t take my youth away / This soul of mine will never break / As long as I wake up today / You can’t take my youth away.”
Given that Khalid is 20-years-old and Mendes is only 19, this duo is very close to the heart of the cause they were supporting. Mendes commented to E! News on Live From the Red Carpet before showtime, “We’ve been really good friends for a couple years and we got together talking about doing something really important and to write something very important. I’m so excited to do it with him.”
