“More than anything, I think I feel a sense of relief, you know?” Selena Gomez, 27, told Ryan Seacrest when discussing releasing her new song, “Lose You to Love Me.” Selena, who chatted with Ryan on the Oct. 24 episode of his On Air with Ryan Seacrest radio show, said that she’s taking a moment to fully appreciate this moment since she’s been working on the song for a while. “It’s been four years since I’ve been working on this album, and it’s actually perfect timing because I was going to release it two years ago, and none of the words that I’m speaking would have existed.”
“So taking a moment to actually feel the feelings that I’ve gone through, it’s just — I don’t know — I’m just so grateful that it’s out,” Selena added.” It’s weird too because I wrote this song over a year ago, “Lose You To Love Me,” and it’s like I feel completely different from when I wrote it. … It’s such an interesting feeling.” The timing seems to confirm fans’ early speculation that this song was about her breakup with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Justin Bieber, 25.
“It’s also more beautiful for me because I know exactly where I was when I wrote it and how I felt,” Selena added. When asked if she could have released the song at the moment of its conception, to capitalize on the feeling she felt at that very moment, Selena said she couldn’t. “Absolutely not. That wouldn’t have happened. It took me a long time to get through it. But now it’s fun! Like, I’m smiling! It’s so great. … It’s everything from happy and emotional to just realizing it and being frustrated. I just wanted to validate all those feelings because they were really real to me.”
When the “two months” line – “in two months, you replaced us / like it was easy” – Selena agreed with Ryan that seeing an ex move on so easily is more painful than the actual breakup. “I’m really grateful too because I’ve actually experienced that a million times before, and that’s the unfortunate part about what I do. It’s all very real to me, and I’m sure it’s just entertainment for other people; but I think I had become numb to it and it would be stupid of me if I didn’t acknowledge what I had felt because it would be inauthentic and that’s everything I claim to be and do.”
“I think that’s why I’ve waited this long to express what I’ve felt,” she added. “I’m always going to be honest with people. I’ve never not been. I might not be overly chatty about it all the time, but this is where I’m able to release it. This is where it turns into art.”
“It’s actually something positive that I was able to experience that was as beautiful and ugly as it was. I think it’s beautiful I’ve been able to turn this into a new chapter,” she added.
Selena dropped a second new single on Oct. 24, an uptempo track called “Look at Her Now.” The lyrics seem to also be about Justin. (“It was her first real lover / His too ’til he had another / Oh, God, when she found out / Trust levels went way down”) However, while “Lose You to Love Me” is more somber about a heartbreak, this second song is a joyous declaration of how the woman in the song “dodged a bullet.”