Selena Gomez On New Single ‘Love On,’ Her Album, Linda Ronstadt Biopic

Last spring, Selena Gomez lived in Paris for two months to film the musical Emilia Perez with Zoe Saldana. The multi-hyphenate couldn’t quite shake how good her life felt there, and she infused her love for the city into the rollout for her new single “Love On.”

“I felt like I can be a normal human being there,” she tells Rolling Stone. “I fell in love with everything about it 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.”

As for when the next album will be released, Gomez “hopes” it’ll come in 2024 but she’s not sure yet. She does add that the new music is coming “from a place of confidence,” reflecting the “joy and curiosity” she has at the moment. 

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

Gomez’s uncertainty of when the album will come out may be due to how busy she has been outside music. On Friday, she went back to filming her hit series Only Murders in the Building alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short. Recently, it was announced that she would be joining a reboot of Wizards of Waverly Place, the Disney series that launched her career. She will also be playing Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic, for which she has been immersing herself in research completely in the months leading up to filming.

“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.”

The Golden Globe nominee was nominated earlier this year for her role on Only Murders, and she’s looking forward to taking on more challenging roles. “I love being able to take roles that I have to fight for, not the ones that are being handed to me,” she says. “I’m going for the stuff that really, really inspires me.”

Still, that doesn’t take away from her excitement to have “Love On” in the world, and she’s hoping the joy she felt while I recording the song and shooting the video is palpable to those listening and watching. 

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