After weeks of surprise cameos at other artists’ shows, Kahan welcomes Toronto native Mendes onstage for an increasingly rare live appearance
Noah Kahan has spent the past few weeks popping up as a surprise guest at other artists’ concerts, and on Saturday the situation was flipped at Kahan’s Toronto gig as the singer welcomed Shawn Mendes onstage to join him on “Stick Season.”
“I’ve been watching this young man’s career for a long time, and in a lot of ways he’s been a North Star for me. When I first got signed, he was still the guy I looked up to a lot,” Kahan said in introducing Mendes onstage.
“I appreciate his music so much, but also who he is as a person. His honesty emotionally, what he presents himself and his journey in music is really relatable and I think it takes a lot of bravery to admit that sometimes things can be hard as a musician and I was really moved by this artist for a long time. He’s a wonderful person, he’s from right here in Toronto.”
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The two singers then delivered a joint rendition of “Stick Season,” one of the increasingly rare live appearances by Mendes since he canceled his 2022 world tour to focus on his mental health; while Mendes hasn’t staged one of his own concerts since June 2022, he’s cameoed with Ed Sheeran during that artist’s Toronto gig in June 2023.
Kahan is no stranger to surprise pop-ins as the singer-songwriter has made unannounced appearances to perform “She Calls Me Back” with Kacey Musgraves in Nashville and, on Friday night, “Stick Season” with Olivia Rodrigo at Madison Square Garden. (Kahan also performed his hit single during a recent visit to Sesame Street.)
