The Weeknd‘s “Save Your Tears” music video has caused a lot of fans to do a double take after many noticed that an actress cast in the video looks like Selena Gomez! The music video went live on January 5, and fans quickly noticed how much the 30-year-old totally transformed for the visual accompaniment to his hit tune. But as the video went on, a familiar face seemingly appeared.
“Girl dancing looks like Selena…even sounds like he said her name,” one person commented on YouTube. “Am I the only one hearing ‘Selena’ [in] the background,” another fan wrote. More took to social media to acknowledge that, not only did the person in the video bear a striking resemblance to Selena, fans also decoded how the song seemed to allude to the songstress too, whom The Weeknd, born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, dated for 10 months back in 2017.
My analysis on how Save Your Tears visually and lyrically alludes to Selena Gomez and their relationship and specifically Selena's songs "Dance Again" "Crowded Room" and "Souivner":
— Lora Grey (@Paginita_Flora) January 6, 2021
When The Weeknd’s After Hours dropped in March 2020, fans immediately began decoding the lyrics to his songs — including “Save Your Tears.” Listeners found a number of easter eggs in the track that seemingly pointed to Selena. “Hold up… is ‘save your tears’ about selena?!? ‘i saw you in a crowded room’ abel PLEASEEEE #AfterHours,” a fan wrote at the time. That’s because the lyric, “I saw you dancing in a crowded room,” might have been a reference to Selena Gomez’s song “Crowded Room” from her album Rare, which debuted just two months earlier than The Weeknd’s.
It wouldn’t come as much of a surprise that The Weeknd is referencing his former flame in his song. Indeed, he often draws from his personal life as a source of inspiration for his music. More fans believed that songs like “Escape From LA” are about his ex Bella Hadid. But “Save Your Tears” definitely appears to allude to Selena, at least to The Weeknd and Selena’s dedicated fan base!