Selena Gomez. Emma McIntyre/FilmMagic
Selena Gomez opened up about how much her song “Who Says” means to her — and why she fought to sing it in the first place.
“It’s actually a funny story: I was working with Disney at the time, and they were actually giving the song to another artist,” Gomez, 31, said while speaking at Twilio’s SIGNAL conference on Wednesday, August 23. “And I cried — I remember, I was with my mom — because I loved the song so much.”
While Gomez didn’t reveal which musician was in line to receive the single she went on to explain why she told her label she would be the best person to perform it’s powerful message of self-love.
“I basically said to my label, ‘I feel like my fans are young and they need it.’ That’s all I kept saying because I was 16 at the time,” she said on Wednesday. “I was like, ‘I think my fans really need it; tell [them] my fans really need the song.’”
The 2011 song was the lead single off Gomez and her band The Scene’s third album, When the Sun Goes Down. The track — which ended up going platinum — was cowritten by Emanuel S. Kiriakou and Priscilla Renea Hamilton. Gomez shared on Wednesday that the song’s message resonated with her and felt like “a gift” that she “did not know [she] needed.”
“And I love, love that song, and it has carried with me through my whole career, and I fought for it,” Gomez admitted.
In the ballad, Gomez sings about accepting yourself for who you are and ignoring the negative comments from others that diminish your self-worth.
“Who says / Who says you’re not perfect / Who says you’re not worth it / Who says you’re the only one that’s hurting / Trust me / That’s the price of beauty / Who says you’re not pretty / Who says you’re not beautiful / Who says,” Gomez sings.
While discussing her third album’s tracklist with Billboard in 2011, Gomez gushed about “Who Says.”
“It’s probably my favorite I’ve ever recorded,” she confessed at the time. “I think it’s really meaningful and it’s kind of a big anthem. It went platinum so it’s my second song ever that’s platinum. I was really excited, I was in the car when I found out promoting the third album. It gave me a big boost.”
Recently, Gomez announced she would be returning to the music world with a new solo single while she works on her upcoming solo album. In the past few years, she’s been featured on a series of tracks including her latest hit “Calm Down” with Rema.
“Y’all have been asking for new music for a while,” she wrote via Instagram on August 17. “Since I’m not quite done with SG3, I wanted to put out a fun little song I wrote a while back that’s perfect for the end of summer. SINGLE SOON. August 25th. Presave it now. 😘.”
