Selena Gomez Tells Billboard: "I'm In the Happiest Place I've Ever Been In My Life"

In a new phone interview with Billboard, Selena Gomez is opening up about her new album, Rare.  Selena shares, “I wanted a record that made people feel something, whether that was a hard relationship to get through, or gaining your confidence back, or being okay with just having fun. So there’s different layers to it, and I’m so grateful that it ended up becoming what it is now, after four and a half years.”

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BB: What have the past few days been like for you?

SG: “It’s been a lot of work — we had some stuff to do in L.A., and at the end of last year we went over to London and Paris, so I haven’t really come up for air. But it’s all a good thing, because this is probably one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to me.”

BB: Listening to “Lose You To Love Me” and “Look At Her Now” when they were released in October, it was clear that this was going to be a pretty revealing project, but it’s even more personal than expected.

SG: “I’ve said this before, but I used to be terrified of saying anything. I would find myself protecting people that never protected me or cared for me. And I wouldn’t want to say the wrong thing, and I wouldn’t want people to think that I had any other motive, other than just being a kind person — though that is who I am and I am proud of that. I was just done, you know? Just done being silent, and I felt like I deserved to have a moment for myself, after going through so much, and throwing that all into this album. It wasn’t even a thought in my mind that I was doing the wrong thing.  I think I got to a place where I just said, this is what I’m gonna do and I’m not gonna be afraid of it. And people might react however they might react, but I know that I’m proud of putting out the music that I did with the content that it has, because I want nothing more than to relate to people — and I want them to know that they’re not alone, and that all of these feelings are completely normal. And they watched me grow up, so I think this was an important album for me to speak up.”

BB: Are there any parts of this album that were either difficult to record for you, or difficult to listen back to now?

SG: “I had worked on the album for four years, so there are songs that we had just finished toward the end of closing, going and mixing the album, so there’s a variety of it. What’s interesting is that the songs… just mean something different to me now. And I think that’s a huge reason why I waited. I didn’t want to be triggered by the same things — I wanted to get out what I was feeling, and then I wanted to celebrate it. And that’s what happened.  When I wrote the song “Lose You to Love Me,” I was kind of a mess. It was really difficult for me. And by the time we shot the music video at the end of the year, it had a completely different meaning, and it was so freeing. It was actually fun for me — I think, because I let it go, it actually meant that I let it go within myself as well. And I couldn’t have asked for a better way to close a chapter in my life.”

Selena also opened up about ‘Vulnerable,’ a song featured on Rare and a fan favourite.

SG: “That’s actually one of my favorites as well, for that reason. It is saying, after completely being depleted from life or whatever… I turned bitter for a while. I was extremely bitter and very dry. I was just disconnected to my feelings for so long. But I go to therapy, I talk about everything that I’m walking through. I felt like, “Why do I do this? Why do I give myself away to people, even if it’s just friends or random people? Why do I do that?”  And I realized it is because one of my strengths, that I thought was a weakness, is being vulnerable. So when we worked on the song, that’s exactly where it started. If I can give you all of myself, are you able to take that, and take care of that? And if you’re not, then I’m still gonna be who I am. I’m just not gonna have you in my life, but I’m gonna continue to be who I am.  That is one of the favorite [things] that I’ve been hearing so far, from multiple people saying they love it, so that’s super exciting. Because you never know — it could be a single, you know? I don’t know.”

For more of Selena’s interview with Billboard, click here.