Selena Gomez delves into the making of her chart-topping album Rare: ‘I believed in myself’

Selena Gomez opened up about the process of recording her latest album Rare in a Zoom chat for the Teen Vogue Summit 2020 on Saturday.

The 28-year-old singer and actress spoke about the themes behind the album, which she called an act of ‘self-discovery.’

Rare was released back in January and became her third album to reach the top of the Billboard 200 album chart.

During her chat, Selena said making Rare was an attempt to share an unvarnished view of her life with her adoring fans.

‘The whole theme of my last album was a lot of self-discovery, a lot of being OK, being alone and being vulnerable, being OK with not looking like everything else, like everyone else. And I think for me, there’s so much that I want my brand [Rare Beauty] to feel like,’ she explained, via Just Jared. 

The Spring Breakers star also cautioned her fans that following their dreams ‘requires a check-in with yourself.’

‘Why do you want to do the things that you’re doing? Are you going to be able to show up for those things? Are you patient with yourself? There are so many questions that you have to ask yourself,’ she continued.

‘But at the same time, it’s equally as important to surround yourself with people who are the ones that are challenging you, the ones that are believing in you, because like I said earlier, there’s a lot of people, even to this day that, you know, say “no” to me, and even when nobody you know, what I mean it’s, you know, when I was younger, I had so many reasons to stop,’ she said.

‘I had so many reasons to not pick myself up and just keep going… But what I could never let go of, was how much I believed in myself and believed in what I was doing.’

Selena described her need to make quality work in whatever medium she chose in order to prove naysayers wrong.

‘When I was younger I was lucky enough to find my passion and from that point on I kind of had to go with it no matter what happened because of that a lot of people told me no, a lot of people said that I wasn’t able to do it or I wasn’t capable. To be honest, there are still people to this day that I think say that and the only thing I can say is the theme of everything I do is good quality,’ she continued.

‘I want to make sure the stuff that I have — whether it’s all the business stuff to my other work acting and singing it’s important for me to be authentic and to connect to something, otherwise it seems a bit pointless to me. But the payoff is amazing.’

Selena’s chat also ventured into her struggles with mental health, which she thought was easier to carry on when she didn’t have to hide it.

‘I think it’s less scary when you talk about it. So that’s some sense of freedom that I gained once I did,’ she said. ‘I think I had a moment where I felt different. Like, “Why do I react this way? Why do I feel the way I do and nobody else does?” and I had to figure that out. I didn’t want just to stay in this place of confusion.’

In addition to her new line of beauty products, Selena will be appearing in the upcoming Hulu series Only Murders In The Building with comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short.

‘It’s a comedy/dramedy show that I’ve been anxious to start filming and now we get the opportunity safely to do it, so I’m looking forward to that,’ said the Wizards Of Waverly Place star.