Thursday, August 14, 2014 11:59am ET by  
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Shawn Mendes on rise to fame: 'I didn't see any singing Vines so thought I should fill the gap'

Canadian singer Shawn Mendes has credited the short-form video sharing service Vine with his success so far and revealed that he noticed there weren't many singing videos on the app so decided to fill the gap with his own clips. 

Vine is a social networking app that allows users to upload and share video clips that are 6 seconds long or less. Mendes, who was 15 when he first starting using it, confessed to The National that he noticed a lack of 'singing Vines' so used this to his advantage:

"I didn't see any singing Vines anywhere so thought maybe I should put one up and who knew that a few months later I would be in this position."

Randy Lennox from Universal Music Canada, which was that label that originally signed Justin Bieber, added that he discovered Mendes through the app, which was a first for him: "That's precisely how I found out (about him). My own kids are on Vine all the time... given the attention span today, 6 seconds is like a movie."

Mendes, meanwhile, picked up the coveted Choice Web Star (Music) prize at last weekend's Teen Choice Awards thanks to his impressive social media presence and after winning, he tweeted to his 1.62 million followers: "I won! That's insane!!! Thank you guys so much! Holy poo. I love u guys so much."

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Watch the interview here: