“A lot of my fan base is Latin, and I’ve been telling them this album was going to happen for years. But the fact that it’s coming out during this specific time is really cool,” she told Vogue
¡Baila con ella!
On Friday, Selena Gomez dropped her seven-track Spanish-language EP Revelación — a tribute to her Latina roots and a gift to her vast fanbase in Latin America.
“The project is really an homage to my heritage,” Gomez told Vogue earlier this week, adding, “It’s a Sasha Fierce moment, for sure.”
With tracks such as “Buscando Amor,” “Vicio” and “Adiós,” the singer taps into her flirty side as she sensually sings about looking for (and letting go of) love.
“Tus labios, tus labios / Son un vicio mío, vicio mío / Bésame despacio, bésame despacio,” she sings on “Vicio.” In English, “Your lips, your lips / Are my vice, my vice / Kiss me slowly, kiss me slowly.”
Meanwhile on “Adiós,” she bids farewell to an ex-lover she’s already moved on from.
“Esto no es personal, no hay nada que explicar, adiós / Si dicen por ahí que con aquel me vi,” she sings in Spanish. “Es probable que sí, yeah, adiós.”
In English: “This isn’t personal, there’s nothing to explain, goodbye / If they say they saw me with someone / It’s probable that it’s true, goodbye.”
For Gomez’s Spanish-speaking fans, the project was a long time coming and a welcome addition to her discography after she dropped Rare in January 2020.
“A lot of my fan base is Latin, and I’ve been telling them this album was going to happen for years. But the fact that it’s coming out during this specific time is really cool,” she told Vogue.
The singer said it’s typically “easier” for her to sing in Spanish than to speak it but admitted to the Los Angeles Times that she had to sometimes stop recording because she’d get frustrated.
“There’s a lot of slang that I needed to learn,” she said. “Spanish changes generationally as well as [geographically]. Sometimes I was like, ‘Wait! Hang on! I need to understand!’”
“There would be moments where I would end the [recording] session because I would get so frustrated,” she added. “Not just trying to create an album from my basement … but making it sound authentic. That’s something that requires meticulous care. But now, I think I actually sound better in Spanish than I do in English.”
The EP was entirely produced by Tainy, who is responsible for some of reggaetón’s biggest hits, including Cardi B’s “I Like It,” Dua Lipa’s “Un Día” and several of Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s albums.
“She has this tone that’s so distinctive,” Tainy told Vogue. “She can hit high notes if she wants to, she can explode in a chorus, but there’s this softness. It’s angelic. You want to leave space around her vocal. What I’ll say is, a lot of artists generate emotion through power — what’s different about Selena is that she generates emotion through subtlety.”