Shawn Mendes uses Canadian wildfire smoke picture as new single’s cover, faces backlash

Shawn Mendes has landed himself in hot water for the cover of his new song titled 'What the Hell Are We Dying For?'. After a short hiatus, the singer, as a surprise to his fans, announced the new song on Thursday. However, what went wrong was the cover image of the song, which was an image of New York City's orange sky.

Taking to his social media, Mendes dropped the cover of the song with the title, 'What the Hell Are We Dying For'written over it. The picture showed the New York City sky covered with smoke from the Canadian wildfires.

Sharing the song, the Canadian singer revealed that he had written it recently. ''Started writing this song yesterday morning with my friends in upstate Newyork & finished it only a few hours ago..felt so important to me to share with you guys in real time ♥️♥️,'' the tweet reads.

While Mendes has been one of the singers who has been vocal about climate change and its effect on human life, his promotional strategy didn't land well with the netizens, who were quick to slam him for using a picture of the Manhattan skyline engulfed in wildfire smoke.

While some fans were delighted to see Mendes's new song after he announced his break in July 2022 to take care of his mental health, however, others were quick to slam him for making fun of a serious situation.

One user wrote, '''ppl are dying in wildfires n getting sick by the poor air quality n u rlly [sic] decided to make it ur aesthetic?''

One Instagram user wrote, ''Why are you trying to profit off a natural disaster.''

"Shawn Mendes turning the fire and smoke pollution into single cover art is sending me into orbit,'' another person wrote.

"Why are you trying to profit off a natural disaster," a user commented.

More about the song

Mendes's song was seemingly about the dire situation in Canada and other cities that are engulfed in orange smoke. 'Smoke in the air/ the city's burning down/ I want to speak/ but I don't make a sound,'the song's lyrics say. 'Locked in my mind, you're all I think about./ I want to save us, but I don't know how.'

There were others who thought the song was about his relationship with Camila Cabello.

'If we don't love like we used to, if we don't care like we used to, what the hell are we dying for?,' the Canadian native sings in the single.

Addressing the Camila and Shawn relationship, one user wrote, ''Did Shawn Mendes just use the Canada wildfires to drop a breakup song ab Camila Cabello?"

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