Award-winning singer, songwriter, actress, and producer, Selena Gomez is one of the world’s most high-profile stars. And, with a huge fanbase that covers every corner of the globe, Gomez’s followers are always curious to know more about the artist’s creative process and what her iconic lyrics are actually about.
According to Selena Gomez, ‘Lose You To Love Me’ is “inspired by many things that have happened in my life since releasing my last album”. Many fans of the artist have speculated that Gomez’s 2019 hit is about the highly-publicized end of her relationship with Justin Bieber before the two split up in 2018.
Generally considered to be a break-up song, ‘Lose You To Love Me’ definitely pulled on the heartstrings of fans around the globe and many made their support of Gomez well-known. However, despite the meaning behind the lyrics being vague and indeterminate, the song is a powerful track and the story behind its release is just as fascinating.
What Did Selena Gomez’s Fans Think of ‘Lose You To Love Me’?
Debuting at number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, ‘Lose You To Love Me’ was an instant hit across the country, and, in the second week after its initial release, the song topped the charts, becoming Gomez’s first number-one single. Internationally, the song also topped charts in Canada and Ireland and was massively popular in countries such as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Interpreted by many fans as a “savage burn towards Bieber”, upon the track’s release, there was a huge outpouring of emotion from fans who chose to express their love for Gomez, who they thought to be hurting from the fallout of her relationship with Bieber. One fan wrote: “If you’ve followed @selenagomez for a while, you understand how much this new song and video means. It’s closure. It’s acceptance. It’s growth. It’s pain. It’s victory. It’s self love.”
Another fan wrote on Twitter: “I needed to lose you to find me, I needed to hate to love me, in two months you replaced us, and now the chapter is closed and done. MY JELENA HEART!!!!”
Following the release of the music video, Gomez fuelled speculation that the song was about her relationship by saying on Twitter: “Thank you all for standing by my side through the highs and lows. I couldn’t do it without you all and I can’t wait to start my next adventure with you.”
The Making of ‘Lose You To Love Me’
Penned by Gomez, alongside Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, and produced by Mattman and Robin and Finneas O’Connell, the song is a ballad backed by a choir, piano, and strings.
Released alongside another single, ‘Look at Me Now’, cowriter Michaels, said: “I think they make a logical pairing because of the topics. One is talking about needing to let go of something in order to find power, and the next one is owning that power. I think that’s the main reason why they work so well together.”
Michaels also revealed that ‘Lose You To Love Me’ was actually written on Valentine’s Day: “We were in the studio and all of us were not in a relationship at the time, and we were just being curmudgeons about love that day. We were talking about things that were going on in our lives, and things that we wanted to overcome, and that’s how ‘Lose You to Love Me’ came about. The song is about letting go of things that hold you back in order to find your self-worth — that inner love for yourself — again.”
Reflecting on Gomez’s first single, Michaels also stated: “I think it’s really brave and beautiful to want to do a song this intimate and vulnerable for her first [single]… I think she’s had a really long year, and a long year of self-reflection, and … I think she’s really found that strength in time, and now she wants to sing about it. She wants to let people know that she’s strong and that she’s come the f–k back.”
A Successful Single
Selling around 36,000 copies in the track’s first weekend, ‘Lose You To Love Me’ was such an instant hit that both Vulture and Billboard listed the track as one of the best songs of 2019.
In an interview with NPR, Gomez did confirm that her relationship with Justin Bieber was something of an inspiration for the song. The Texas-born artist said: “It has a different meaning to me now from when I wrote it. I felt I didn’t get a respectful closure, and I had accepted that, but I know I needed some way to just say a few things that I wish I had said.
“It’s not a hateful song. It’s a song that is saying, ‘I had something beautiful and I would never deny that it wasn’t that’. It was very difficult and I’m happy it’s over. And I felt like this was a great way to just say, ‘You know, it’s done, and I understand that, and I respect that, and now here I am stepping into a whole other chapter.'”