Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco Aren’t Rushing Wedding Plans — They Have an Album to Release
If the engagement ring Benny Blanco slipped onto Selena Gomez’s finger in December has sealed his fate as a stay-at-home husband, he considers it to be a pretty good deal. “That’s what I’m praying for,” the producer and songwriter, 37, says over Zoom from their Los Angeles residence. “I like to be domestic.”
Gomez, 32, is seated to his right, smiling down at the massive marquise diamond beaming back at her. She can’t complain, either. When she’s craving chips and queso in the dead of the night, he’s down in the kitchen making it happen. And when she hunkered down in their home recording studio — unsure of her musical direction after a few false starts in the five years since her LP Rare — Blanco helped clear the fog.
“That’s the most intimate I’ve ever been in a studio,” says Gomez, who dropped her fourth studio album, a release with Blanco titled I Said I Love You First, out on March 21. “We did everything from home, and we created it with people that we love.” Having familiar collaborators Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter on the project, along with Blanco, unlocked a sense of freedom in the singer and actress. You can hear it in the winking innuendos on her new single “Sunset Blvd,” and in the bare confessions of the tender ballad “Younger & Hotter.”
And while I Said I Love You First has taken slight precedence over wedding planning, Gomez and Blanco see the record as an extension of their relationship. “I hadn’t seen her excited about music for a long time. And I remember she was like, ‘I have to pull over the car because I’m so happy,’” Blanco remembers. “And then I knew at that moment. I was like, ‘Well, if it’s making both of us happy, then hopefully it makes a few other people happy.’”
What did album mode feel like for you guys?
Gomez: I was, to be honest, very frustrated and kind of confused on where I wanted to go next musically. And we had been together for a while, and obviously I would confide in him. I couldn’t figure out my sound. It helps that he knows a little bit about music, and it kind of happened organically to where I felt like this process was unlike any other process I’d ever been through.
Blanco: She’d wake up, I’d have a pen out, and I’d write what was on her mind. Then we’d go into the other room and create it, and it became a song. It was such a cathartic and therapeutic experience. All the songwriting, it’s all our friends. There’s no, like, “Man, we’re gonna get in with this person for the first time — I wonder how this is gonna go.” We also kept this one really close to the chest, because I feel like it was so important for it to be written exactly how we wanted it and to feel exactly how we wanted it to feel.
Selena, when you look back at who you were when you made Revival ten years ago, how do you marry those two versions of yourself?
Gomez: Revival was such a pivotal moment for me, and I’ll always be so proud of it. I think [in terms of’ headspace, I was very happy with how the album went, because I really felt very much in control of that and then the image of it all was really important too. But I think now, this sounds so silly, but I’m older, so I think the way I go about things is different. I don’t obsess over certain things to make it. I just tried so hard to be cool, you know? I just wanted to be viewed as cool. “Good for You,” having A$AP [Rocky] on it, I was so honored and it was such a highlight.
This is another version, just being able to do this with someone I love, who happens to also be one of the most talented producers, and then doing it after building years of those relationships. I did “Good for You” ten years ago with Julia [Michaels] and Justin [Tranter], and they’re incredible. They’re on every album, but they’re on this album. This one felt like, okay, now I have a little bit more of a rein on what I’m doing, and I have the same people, but also him, and it makes it feel more mature.
How did your approach to emotional ballads change after having a career-defining moment with “Lose You to Love Me”?
Gomez: I think it’s safe to say my strength in music would be just storytelling and the way that I just feel comfortable in a lower register and a softer tone. That’s something that I know I can bring to the table, so I just tried to highlight that. And so did Benny, while he was composing everything and putting it together. It was like, “What would be nice and soothing for my voice, nothing that sounded like I was trying to be anything else?” That was really important to me. To do these vulnerable songs, it’s nice because I’m in a different place than I was.
By Larisha Paul
