Is Shawn Mendes' ‘If I Can’t Have You’ For Hailey Baldwin Or Camila Cabello?

Artists such as Shawn Mendes usually get their inspiration from something or someone when writing their songs. Thus, with the surging popularity of his recently released hit music “If I Can’t Have You,” fans are busy speculating who might have inspired him to write the song.

There are a few usual suspects — the female celebrities that Mendes was previously rumored to have secretly dated in the past. These include Justin Bieber’s wife, Hailey Baldwin, as well as Fifth Harmony’s Camila Cabello. But a new theory now says it’s neither of the two because it was reportedly written for English singer Dua Lipa.

There are speculations that Mendes might have written “ If I Can’t Have You” for Hailey Baldwin. The song, which was released just last May, came out around a year after they attended the 2018 Met Gala together. But since Baldwin is now with Justin Bieber, well, the title basically says it all.

However, there are those who are not convinced about the Hailey Baldwin theory. These fans believe that the song is actually about Camila Cabello.

“I can't write one song that's not about you,” the song’s lyrics say, which some fans are pretty certain to pertain to Cabello. However, Mendes is not admitting anything at all at this point.

“Do you think we (mendes army) can guess who the song is about?” a fan asked in a Q&A about the song. “I don't think you guys have to guess anything about me at this point. You know EVERYTHING!” was Mendes clever but noncommittal response.

However, another report said that the song was originally intended for another artist to sing. According to Just Jared Jr, Mendes wrote “If I Can’t Have You” himself, but it was meant to be sung by the English artist Dua Lipa.

“We wrote a ton of songs,” Mendes told Zane Lowe on Beats 1. “I was back in the studio with Teddy Geiger and Nate and I was playing it on piano and I was like oh my god this would be really cool for Dua Lipa.”

When the song was finished, however, Mendes decided to try it out himself. “It’s a confident pop record and it’s clearly that for me,” the Canadian singer explained. “I’m going through this phase right now where I’m testing out all the styles I can possibly be doing.”