Coming out, crazy love and diseases are all delicate topics to write about. Imagine putting them into song. Selena Gomez put all those topics into her 2017 singles. Selena brings out messages in each of the three singles and she tells a story. Her songs were huge in the sense that they carried some very personal messages along with them. She explains her struggles in her three new songs: “Bad Liar”, “Fetish”, and “Wolves”.

“Bad liar” was the first of the singles she dropped in 2017 and it came out to be a very misunderstood song. The video was difficult to follow and took some time to finally understand what was happening. By watching the video multiple times I realized the song is about young, gay love. I respect Selena so much for bringing this topic up in some of her music. This song shows Selena playing all the characters which include: the high school student, her mother, her father, and her gym teacher. It shows at the end of the video her staring at a picture of her female teacher and kissing it. I think this is such an empowering message because some people are scared to talk about the LGBTQI community. This last year has been filled with violence and disputes about gays and their rights. By her bringing this into her music and not being scared has been so inspiring to many young kids and adults. Selena says, “Trying to distract myself” in “Bad Liar”. I feel like this is implying that she doesn’t want people to find out and that she doesn’t want to feel what she does. Being gay or lesbian should not have to be something a person has to hide. It should be something that people can embrace and not conceal away. In the last 10 seconds of the video, it previews her next single, “Fetish”.

Now this song was definitely one of the weirder ones. This song was released when Selena and The Weekend were dating. This song pokes at weird and strange love. In “Fetish” she sings “I’m not surprised, I sympathize. I can’t deny your appetite”. I think that’s a pretty odd thing to say in a song, but she made it work. Fans think that she wrote this song hinting that she thought The Weeknd was cheating on her. This song seems kind of devious in a way that she shades her now ex. This song picks at different types of love and how it is okay to be a little different. “Fetish” was the second song in 2017 and I think the least meaningful of the three. The message in this song isn’t very clear from the video, once again, but I could for sure understand it after I researched it. This song was released in July while “Bad Liar” was released in May a couple months earlier. Her third single of this year, “Wolves”,  came in November after a long break over the rest of the summer.

Selena kind of went into hiding while she was in a battle with her disease lupus. Her disease was the reason she hadn’t released any music in between “Fetish” and “Wolves”.  The song “Wolves” came out in November and has increased in popularity since. This song to me has a very strong message. “Wolves” is about her struggle with lupus and to my surprise lupus in Latin means wolves. It’s crazy how that seemed to work out and the story of her is portrayed so well in this song. Nice play Selena! In the beginning of the song, it says “sweet divide, a heavy truth.” as in that her disease is her truth. It is saying that she can’t deny the fact that she has lupus and she just has to live with it and fight.  I personally have only listened to the song a couple times but I have done research about the song itself. Selena was in need of a kidney transplant and in August she got it. Her life was saved by her best friend Francia Raisa. She is an actress and has been in Selena’s life for a while. Lupus has inspired her to write this song and I feel like she could be such an inspiration for just preserving through things. Her music is just part of her life that she shares with the world and she is more than just a singer. As this year came to an end she didn’t have any surprise singles. She rounded out the year on a good note.

Selena Gomez has pushed through some of the hardest things anyone can do. From trying to get the perfect lyrics about gay love or to her war with lupus, she still seizes to amaze us. Her songs send very strong messages that most artists are scared to talk about. Selena has taught me especially how to preserve and come out on top. When faced with a difficult situation I personally have been inspired by her to just go through it. She is not just an inspiration to me, but over a hundred million people. Selena tells us that hardships will come and when they do we just have to fight and tough it out. We can achieve anything if we put our minds to it and she has definitely shown us that. 

“I want people to be really inspired, to believe they can do whatever they want”-Selena Gomez.