Selena Gomez may only be 31, but the pop star and Disney alum is already planning her exit from the music industry.
"I do feel like I have one more album in me but I would probably choose acting," she said during a preview for an upcoming episode of the Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. "I am going to want to chill because I’m tired."
'I do feel like I have one more album in me but I would probably choose acting,' the star said.
The upcoming LP is expected to come out in February. The singer added that she never intended for music to become her top priority.
"I wanted to be an actress, I never really intended on being a singer full-time but apparently that hobby turned into something else," she said. "I don’t think I’m the best singer but I do know how to tell stories and I love being able to make songs."
Balancing the two creative pursuits was going well for a while.
"I started having a lot of fun with music and then touring was really fun," Gomez said. "But I was doing my TV show [‘Wizards of Waverly Place’] at the same time and I just found it really fun, so I just kept going."
The star noted that her relationship with Disney made going both much easier.
"Disney is, it’s safe to say, a machine and, in a way, forcefully requires that I know how to sing so I could sing the theme song [of a show]," Gomez said. "They know how to package someone and make it a whole triple threat thing."
Despite the successful release of her sophomore studio album Revival in 2015, the singer's mental health took a turn for the worse the following year. That's when she was diagnosed with lupus and bipolar disorder.
Gomez opened up about how her rigorous touring schedule contributed to this breakdown.
"I went to a mental institute and canceled one of my tours," she said. "It just got to me because I love working and it distracts me from bad things."
The full podcast episode will be available to stream on Jan. 8.
'I am going to want to chill because I’m tired,' she added.
Gomez has released three studio albums so far, all of which made it to the top of the Billboard 200. Her latest LP Rare came out in January 2020.
Since then, the artist has put out a handful of singles. The most successful was a remix of Rema's track "Calm Down" released in 2022. It made it to the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and the No. 1 spot on the Canadian Hot 100. The only track Gomez released in 2023 was "Single Soon."
The singer is also a social media powerhouse. She even has Taylor Swift beat on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and (perhaps most importantly) TikTok. Swift had 23.3 million followers on the app last month, which is an unthinkable number. But it wasn't even half of the 59.3 million followers Gomez has courted on the platform.
The upcoming LP will be Gomez's first since 2020.
The Disney alum had the fourth most popular video of 2023 on TikTok, according to the platform's year end roundup. The clip showing her pre-flight skincare routine has been liked nearly 25 million times.
It includes a snippet from Swift's 2020 track "Cardigan." Fans found this heartwarming.
"You using Taylor's sound is everything," one commenter said. "The support is so cute."
