4 March: Selena talks new music with Billboard and Rolling Stone

In the brand new interviews with Rolling Stone and Billboard magazines, Selena gives more details about her upcoming music and says that she ‘hopes’ that her highly anticipated album will drop this year, while denying fans speculations that her new song ‘Love On’ will be on the album.

Interview with Rolling Stone:

“I felt like I can be a normal human being there,” she tells Rolling Stone about filming in Paris. “I fell in love with everything about Paris and the life that I lived there for two months.”

Gomez had begun working on “Love On” before she left for Paris and felt the song “solidify” while she was in the City of Love. “It just completely inspired me,” she continues.

For the song, she reunited with songwriter Julia Michaels, who has been a frequent collaborator of the singer’s since Revival. “I don’t there’s a world where I would ever start to crack an album code without Julia,” Gomez says. “She and I have this soul connection where we are experiencing things in our lives at the same time sometimes. She’s really able to know my voice, and then we try to make songs that have a fun, unique twist to it.”

“Love On” is Gomez’s second single to be released in the last year, following up August’s “Single Soon.” For the star, both songs are reflective of where she’s been at in her life over the nearly two years of recording new music. Where “Single Soon” doubts the potential of a new romance, “Love On” is thrilled by the possibilities of everything it could be.

“Both of them stand alone in their messaging but I stand by each of them for sure,” she adds.

In contrast to fan speculation that one or both are singles off her next full-length album, Gomez says they also stand alone musically, as well.

“I guess it’s safe to say that ‘Single Soon’ and ‘Love On’ might not be really reflective of the project that I’m working on,” she teases. “They are in spirit, but I’m excited to explore more styles of music, and I think people will hopefully be surprised by the contrast. I like releasing songs that I love and I care about. I just released them into the world and later comes the full album.”

“Part of me feels like I’m finally at a good place with everything in my life,” – Selena explains.

“I’m stepping into someone’s life, and that can be really intimidating,” she says. “But I’m beyond inspired by [Linda], and I know too much about her at this point.”

If it seems like Gomez’s focus is currently on film and television, that observation would be correct. She commented on a podcast earlier this year that her next album may be her last. She’s softened her view on the finality of her music career, but it remains true that she is more inclined to put her energy into acting in the immediate future.

“I think it’s natural for people to take breaks, but I think for me, there is a whole other aspect to my life, pride and joy,” Gomez explains. “I love film. I love TV. I just feel like I haven’t done a lot of the things that I want to do in that space. It’s not that it’s ‘no, never’ [to music], it’s more that I would like to explore that world a bit more and have the time to actually do that.”

“All I want to do at the end of the day is make people happy.” – Selena

Interview with Billboard:

“It’s been lovely,” Gomez tells Billboard about seeing the general reaction to “Love On” following its Feb. 22 release. “I try not to read too much into things, but I think the whole idea was to make a song that felt good. I feel like I’m in such a light and happy place, and that’s reflected in the song.”

“It was really sweet — Reese Witherspoon came up to me and said the song made her really happy and she loved it,” Gomez recalls. “It was a huge compliment, I was glowing. Those messages mean the world to me.”

“It’s so liberating to not worry about how I look,” Gomez says of filming the video, “and I just wanted it to feel like I was having a good time. I didn’t need it to feel very intense or dramatic. It was just a blast, and I wanted it to convey that — I was genuinely that happy.”

Gomez says that she “definitely” has more material with the “Love On” creative brain trust of Michaels, who has helped pen some of her biggest pop hits, and production/songwriting collective The Monsters & Strangerz, which has worked with Gomez dating back to her Stars Dance album in 2013.

“I feel like I have moments where I hit these strides, and we’re just writing song after song, just in the zone, and I tend to do that when I’m with that dynamic group,” she says. “With Julia and I — for some reason the universe has put us in each other’s lives, because we go through so many similar things in our lives. It just feels so nice to have someone who knows me, knows my voice really well. That’s kind of what I feel like the goal is when I work with that gang — I’m always like, ‘How can I make another song that feels kitschy and fun?’”

“I think objectively, I would like to say that I am working towards an album, but I don’t know if those songs would be on that project,” she says. “I feel like I’m brewing, and I’m in the process of really creating some great songs, hopefully. I don’t know if they would fit with what I’m gonna go with.”

“I want to continue working towards my goals,” she says. “In the acting field, I feel like I haven’t even started. And with music, it’s always evolving. It’s such a therapeutic experience for me.”