Shawn Mendes is currently absent from his Tour “On the Road Again”and while performing in Vancouver on Sunday (Oct. 12), the singer-songwriter took advantage of the colonial occasion of Canadian Thanksgiving to invite Cree and Salish artists. Tia Wood share the stage with him.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky and blessed to have spent some time over the last few years with some First Nations communities around the world,” Mendez told fans at Rogers Arena before surprising them with JUNO-nominated Wood, who is originally from the Saddle Creek Cree Nation in central Alberta. “What I know for sure is that words cannot describe how healing, how beautiful, and how much we have to learn from the indigenous peoples of this world.”
Mendes and Wood duetted on “Youth,” a song from Mendes' 2018 album of the same name that already serves as a message of resilience for young people. However, the Indigenous musician made it even more meaningful by performing her own verse that shed light on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis: “Where do I start?
After the performance, Mendes took to Instagram to share a video of the duet and talk about how “honored” he was to share the stage with Wood. “Thank you for showing us all that it really isn’t that hard to support Indigenous voices, our communities and our advocacy,” Wood, who released her debut EP, Pretty Red Birdlast year and this Friday (October 17) a new single called “Sage My Soul” will be released,” they wrote in the comments.
