Selena Gomez Says Her Upcoming Music Is 'Powerful' and 'Strong': 'The Theme Generally Is Freedom'

"If I had my way, I would probably write ballads my whole life, but I want to produce music that will make people smile," Gomez told Vanity Fair

Selena Gomez. Photo: Steven Klein

Selena Gomez is preparing to enter a liberated era of new music.

In an interview for the latest Vanity Fair cover story on Wednesday, the actress and singer teased her next project, which will mark her first since 2020's Rare, noting that its thematic throughline will be "freedom."

"If I had my way, I would probably write ballads my whole life, but I want to produce music that will make people smile," Gomez told the outlet for their Hollywood Issue. "The music I'm doing right now is about real things that I'm walking through."

She continued, "It's really powerful, strong, very pop. The theme generally is freedom — freedom from relationships, freedom from the darkness."

Vanity Fair. Steven Klein

Elsewhere in the interview, Gomez opened up about having an assistant run most of her social media accounts. "I never got the chance to go to an actual high school," she explained. "The world was my high school for the longest time, and I started getting inundated with information that I didn't want."

Seeing comments about her personal life on social media contributed to her decision to stop using the platforms directly. "I went through a hard time in a breakup and I didn't want to see any of the [feedback] — not necessarily about the relationship, but the opinions of me versus [someone] else," added Gomez. "There'd be thousands of really nice comments, but my mind goes straight to the mean one."

After dealing with prolonged sadness and "anxiety" as a result of negative comments on social media, she took the responsibility of running her own accounts off of her plate. "I couldn't do it anymore. It was a waste of my time," she told Vanity Fair.

Selena Gomez. Amy Sussman/Getty

"The only thing I have on my phone is TikTok because I find it to be a little less hostile. There are wonderful things about social media — connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories," clarified the star, noting that her team will occasionally show her a few "encouraging" comments from fans.

Additionally, Gomez spoke about Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and the subsequent increase in hate speech on the platform.

"It's dangerous. I don't think I need to say anything because he's getting [the feedback] that I feel," she said. "I don't care about him, but about the [direction] of Twitter…It's not my favorite app, for sure. I don't know if it was [about feeling] cool that you own something. I just find it irresponsible and unsafe."