Listening to Selena Gomez’s new song, Love On, one can picture her sipping a Tequila Sunrise that matches the colours of her marabou-trimmed slippers, having a bit of fun. After all, she is at a crossroads. The new single follows in the steps of Calm Down and Single Soon while making listeners recall what the singer recently said: Her next album could well be the last, allowing her to focus on other projects.
The 31-year-old has a busy schedule beyond the recording industry. Her series Only Murders in the Building has been renewed for a fourth season and recently she was confirmed to portray Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic. Sometime this year, she will star alongside Zoe Saldana in the musical Emilia Perez, which has brought her to Paris.
“I’ve had a lot of fun lately, or I should say in the past few years, just experimenting and finding what those little ear charms are and that’s what they feel like to me. And I just loved the song and I am so eager and excited, and I want people to feel good when they listen to it. That’s what I want to hear on the radio now,” Gomez told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
If you haven’t heard Lowe yet, think of the man as the Oprah Winfrey of the music industry. Musicians come to him to talk about singles and concerts and then quickly unroll their thoughts on regrets and coping mechanisms. He is a trusted figure in the music world.
Living in Paris
In Single Soon we heard Gomez sing “I know he’ll be a mess when I break the news/but I’ll be single soon”, complete with all the marching beats of one’s decision to move on: “I’m gonna do what I wanna do”. The flirty Love On mirrors her mood at the moment: “I’m no cheap thrill/ I’m a rollercoaster ride, baby, jump on”. This is unadulterated fun. She declares that it’s no point “conversin’ over this steak tartare” while she should be “makin’ out in the back of a car/ Or in the back of a bar?/ Or we could make a memoir, yeah/ On the back wall of the last stall/ In the bathroom at The Bazaar”.
“I don’t feel very safe in a lot of rooms just because of sharing my story, but I find that when I work with new people, it’s actually really fun to connect on what they’re walking through in life. But I think it’s also important that I stay with my core group because they’re the people who can crack the code with me the best. They’re the ones that can really help me explain what I want to say,” she told Apple Music 1.
Gomez is in a Paris frame of mind because why not, she is in the City of Love because of the musical Emilia Perez. In the video she is seen dancing in a European mansion, rocking a wardrobe that could have just jumped off a fashion ramp.
“I think that’s the idea. The idea is that I was inspired a lot by living in Paris, that for two months I had to work there and I loved just the quality of life and how romantic it felt. And then to kind of feel really happy in my life and actually mean it is so, it’s just like you can tell in my video, I’m just smiling the whole time. It’s such a good feeling. No, I was absolutely able to live life freely and I felt, even though I was single then, I felt like it was one of the most romantic cities and just everything from walking down the street to a little cafe, it can be really sweet,” said Gomez, who is currently in a relationship with the record producer Benny Blanco.
Balancing game
Gomez has always laid all her cards on the table. Her 2022 documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, showed the singer at her most vulnerable. On the one hand is her global fame — the Disney child star turned singer-songwriter-actor with more than 400m Instagram followers. On the other is a vulnerable girl who has struggled through life — diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus, she underwent a kidney transplant in 2017, opened up about mental health issues and had to accept her personal life being splattered in tabloids.
“Most celebrities that I’ve met, form a kind of armour; they get a skin that they put on. What I realised working with Selena is she doesn’t. It’s why she can hug her fans one by one. But it also means she doesn’t have the protective layer,” the documentary’s director Alek Keshishian told t2 earlier.
Gomez’s story is also a story of caution for anyone seeking fame and fortune by living life 24x7 on social media. Born in 1992 in Grand Prairie, Texas, her first TV gig came at age 10 on Barney & Friends but her big break was the role of Alex Russo in Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place, which aired from 2007 to 2012. Like many before her, she soon landed a record deal but what the world saw more closely was her on-and-off relationship with Justin Bieber, which began in 2010. Barely into her 20s, she was struggling with depression and anxiety.
It’s good to see the young singer turning in carefree music in the studio. At the same time, it will be interesting to see how she balances her music and acting careers. “I think there is a lot of ruckus about the idea of balancing both. But for me, I think I am in a really comfortable place where I get to do both. I’m very lucky, however, I take joy in taking my time and making music and selecting songs in a specific way, a specific time, and I’m comfortable with what I’m doing,” said Gomez.
At the moment all eyes are on her and Benny Blanco. The two sort of confirmed their relationship in December. Blanco helped her produce the song, Single Soon. In the music video to the single, Gomez is seen on a night out with fellow single friends, which she said is pretty similar to her actual girls’ nights out.
“Without getting into too much detail, I think it’s just really important to meet someone who respects you. And I think it’s really nice to also lean on someone who understands the world that I live in. But I’d have to say overall it’s the safest that I feel and it’s been really lovely and I’ve only grown through it, so it’s awesome,” Gomez told Apple Music 1.
