Earlier today Selena Gomez announced on Twitter that she had a brand new song coming tonight, as if she hadn’t been busy enough with multiple seasons of a cooking show in the works. “De Una Vez. Esta noche,” she wrote. “Presave ahora.” Then, translating for those who don’t know Spanish: “Tonight. Presave Now.” It’s not an unusual message from an artist announcing a new single, but the way she prioritized Spanish over English, and the Spanish title of the song, definitely set the tone for a new phase.
Though Gomez was born and raised in Texas, and is proudly Mexican-American, she rarely releases music in Spanish and all three of her solo albums — and the three prior with her band Selena Gomez And The Scene — focused predominantly on English songs. Based off a further series of tweets today promoting the new single, it sounds like that’s all about to change. Re-posting an old tweet of her own from 2011 that reads “Can’t wait for y’all to hear the Spanish record ;) it’s sounding so cool,” she added “I think it will be worth the wait.”
She went on to write in Spanish: “De Una Vez disponible ya. Este es el comienzo de algo que durante mucho tiempo había querido explorar. Espero que te guste tanto como a mí. // De Una Vez is out now.” Another tweet below translates to: “This is the beginning of something I’ve wanted to explore for so long. I hope you love it as much as I do.” Since Selena became a star, there’s certainly been a shift in American receptivity to Spanish language pop music, with rising superstars like J. Balvin, Bad Bunny, and many more paving the way and establishing huge fan bases in their own right. Check out the video for “De Una Vez” above and get ready for a new phase of Selena.
