Grab the tissues. Selena Gomez went all in for her emotional new music video and single “The Heart Wants What It Wants.”
The “Slow Down” singer, 22, debuted the track and its accompanying visuals in the early hours of Thursday, Nov. 6. Gomez had been teasing the highly personal project for days, tweeting earlier this week, “As I have a last listen, I thought a lot about my year. I thought a lot about my voice. And after a year of holding on. I think it’s time to start sharing.”
Share she did. Gomez did not hold back in “The Heart Wants What It Wants,” taking inspiration from her talked-about relationship troubles.
The former Disney star opens the song with a personal recording of her voice. She is heard breaking down and crying as she discusses problems with a man, presumably her on-again, off-again boyfriend Justin Bieber.
“When I was on stage and I was thinking of…” Gomez begins, trailing off as she speaks. “I know him though, and I know that I know his heart, and I know what he wouldn’t do to hurt me.”
“But I didn’t realize that I’m feeling so confident and feeling so great about myself and then it [can] just be completely shattered by one thing,” she continued, beginning to cry. “By something so stupid. But then you make me feel crazy, you make me feel like it’s my fault. I was in pain.”
The moody black-and-white video then leads into “The Heart Wants What It Wants,” as Gomez croons to a smooth mid-tempo beat about love and love lost. Between shots of the star canoodling with a man and breaking down crying, she sings, “The bed’s getting cold and you’re not here / The future that we hold is so unclear / But I’m not alive until you call / And I’ll bet the odds against it all / Save your advice ’cause I won’t hear / You might be right but I don’t care / There’s a million reasons why I should give you up / But the heart wants what it wants.”
The vulnerable track is Gomez’s first new offering off of her upcoming For You compilation album. The record features her greatest hits such as “Come & Get It” and “Love You Like a Love Song,” as well as two new songs. Take a look at the “The Heart Wants What It Wants” in the video above.
