Gomez stayed with her mom, an Anglo-American of Italian descent, yet Gomez retained a connection to her Mexican heritage by sharing weekends, holidays and quinceañeras with her father, whose parents first migrated to Texas from Monterrey, Mexico, during the 1970s.
Her father, Ricardo Joel Gomez, and her mother, Mandy Teefey, were teenage lovers who went their separate ways when she was 5. It’s an intriguing career pivot for Gomez, who was born and raised in a town called Grand Prairie, on the outskirts of Dallas. “I know the time by your side cut my wings / But now this chest is bulletproof.” “Sé que el tiempo a tu lado cortó mis alas / Pero ahora este pecho es antibalas,” she sings, walking her buoyant melody along with the unhurried rhythm of dembow.
Wearing a sumptuous floral gown, and a sacred heart radiating from her chest, Gomez debuted her video for the reggaeton-flavored guitar ballad, “De Una Vez,” in February - building on the same intimate triumphs of “Rare” but for a Spanish-speaking audience. But on “Revelación,” Gomez evolves into a sensuous tropical siren, swaying both her body and voice to match the rhythm of the ocean tides. On “Rare,” Gomez delivered soul-baring pop confessionals like “ Lose You to Love Me,” singing self-possessed verses with the reverent lilt of a choirgirl. “It’s nice to be in a place where I feel lucky and grounded and really happy to just be working,” she says. That just means it’ll be later or whenever.’” It helped me change my outlook - being able to say ‘If it doesn’t happen right now, that’s OK. “A few years ago I would have never had taken these opportunities because of my insecurities or things that I was dealing with mentally. “The Spanish record wouldn’t have happened had I just kept going with the pace of my life and all my other commitments,” she explains. As the pandemic wound on, Gomez turned her house into a makeshift office space for her cosmetics line, Rare Beauty a television set for her HBO Max cooking show, “ Selena + Chef,” and a recording studio for her first-ever Spanish-language EP, “Revelación,” or “Revelation,” due out March 12. Though now in remission, Gomez duly took refuge in her Los Angeles home, where she hunkered down with her grandparents and best friends for months. Quarantine was a familiar experience for Gomez, who spent years in and out of treatment centers for anxiety and depression in 2015 she was diagnosed with lupus, a long-term autoimmune disease, that forced her to both undergo chemotherapy and obtain a kidney transplant in 2017. Gomez had just begun to celebrate this milestone when, not two months after her album release, the pandemic drove the whole world indoors for the majority of 2020.
Her music career followed the same trajectory in 2012, when she left behind her bubblegum rock band the Scene to cut it as a one-woman act, turning over maximalist dance-floor cuts in 2013’s “Stars Dance” and 2015’s “Revival.” Parting ways with off-and-on flame Justin Bieber, plus a self-imposed mental health sabbatical, helped shape 2020’s “Rare,” her first album in five years and her third consecutive album to debut at No.
The 28-year-old first made her name as a child star of beloved shows like “Barney & Friends” and the Disney Channel series “Wizards of Waverly Place” - then set her kiddie credentials aflame by appearing in Harmony Korine’s 2012 arthouse romp, “Spring Breakers,” cueing her pivot to more PG-13 roles as well as executive producer credits on hot-button shows like “ 13 Reasons Why.” Gomez has spent the better part of her life taking command over her voice, whether on screen, in song or in her personal life. “Maybe my best moment, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. “Look, I am a very modest person, until you disrespect people,” she says. Seated by the window of her New York apartment, Gomez appears via video call in a red flannel button-up shirt and gold hoops, which sharpen the edges of her soft, seraphic profile. Our experts forecast wins for Beyoncé's ‘Black Parade’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore,’ and that the odds may be stacked against Megan Thee Stallion. Music Here are our Grammy predictions: Beyoncé, Taylor and the cursed best new artist category