Shawn Mendes’ “In My Blood” has achieved a milestone of one billion streams on Spotify. The Canadian musician’s 2018 hit single was written by Mendes, Geoff Warburton, Scott Harris and the song’s producers Teddy Geiger. It appeared on Mendes’ self-titled third album the same year.
“In My Blood” was nominated for Song of the Year at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, and won Single of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2019, the Canadian equivalent. The song reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“This song,” Mendes wrote in a social media post around the original release, “is the closest song to my heart that I’ve ever written.” “Help me/It’s like the walls are cavin’ in/Sometimes, I feel like givin’ up,” goes the chorus.
In a Beats 1 video, Mendes spoke to Zane Lowe about the track’s subject matter and creation.
The track was the first written for Shawn Mendes. “When we walked in, I was like, I want to make a Kings of Leon record. I want to go more rock.” “In My Blood” is about Mendes’ personal experiences with anxiety. “It was kind of something that hit me last year,” he said. “Growing up, I was a pretty calm kid. I knew people who suffered from anxiety, found it kind of hard to understand, and then when it hits you, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy.’”
In the interview with Lowe, Mendes assured his fans that he was in a good mental place. “When I play that song, I go ‘Just so you know I’m okay,’” he said. “The best thing about it is that it’s not all down. The whole reason I wrote the song was to be like, at the very end, ‘It’s not in my blood to do that.’”
