Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello at 2021 MTV VMAs

Shawn Mendes walked without girlfriend Camila Cabello at MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, September 12, surprising fans of the couple. This is the second time the couple opted not to walk a red carpet together, the first being in 2020 at the Grammy’s, in which the Fifth Harmony singer, 24, brought her father as her plus one.

Shawn arrived at this year’s VMAs wearing a crisp white outfit with black shoes, smiling for the camera, flashing a peace sign and noticeably alone.

But don’t worry, the couple is still going strong. On the red carpet, he told MTV that he was looking forward to “[seeing] his girlfriend’s performance,” adding he thinks Camila will “be spectacular.”

Camila and Shawn first met in 2014 when they were both opening for singer Austin Mahone and remained friends after the experience, despite a flirty exchange on The Late Late Show With James Cordon in 2015. According to the “Monster” singer, Camila would “swerve” him, while Camila said she was friend-zoned.

In June 2019, the musicians released the steamy song “Señorita.” When Camila split up with then-boyfriend Matthew Hussey the same month, fans began to speculate that a romance was blooming.

After five years of will-they-won’t-they, the longtime friends announced they were dating in July 2019. The musicians have been inseparable since — especially since they were self-quarantining together amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The “Havana” singer and Shawn split their time between Miami, with Camila’s family, and in Los Angeles. The time spent together has only strengthened their relationship, despite rumors that the pair split in August 2020.

“I mean to be completely honest, it was my first time spending time with my girlfriend and her family in their house in Miami,” Shawn said during an October 2020 interview with Australian radio show Smallzy’s Surgery. “I was there for like three months so I got really, like, I was doing laundry, well I was barely doing laundry. I was trying to do laundry. I was learning how to cook. It was nice man, it was really nice.”

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In fact, all that time with Camila and her family may have helped him finish his latest album, Wonder, which came out in December 2020.

“I went to Miami and I was living with Camila and her parents and her sister and I was in panic for the first week being like there’s no way I’m going to make an album,” Shawn told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And then when I started to settle in to how nice it is to be in the same place every night, to have a movie time, to cook dinner with the family and to do laundry. I know it sounds really kind of silly but when you’ve been touring the world since you’re 15 years old, like, I don’t remember the last time I smelled laundry. It’s a nice smell. It’s a really calming smell. It feels like growing up.”

Keep scrolling to see their looks for the night.