Selena Gomez confirmed longstanding speculation that she was the inspiration behind Taylor Swift’s song “Dorothea,” saying the Evermore song was written about her.
Gomez made the revelation during a recent episode of her husband Benny Blanco and artist Lil Dicky’s web series, Friends Keep Secrets. Touching on why she connects to Swift’s music on a more personal level, Gomez said Swift had written at least two songs that reflect on their paths from teenage stars, to working as adult women in Hollywood, to now finding their respective partners. (Gomez married music producer Blanco last September, and Swift got engaged to NFL star Travis Kelce that August.)
“Well, ‘Dorothea’ is about me — one of her songs,” Gomez explained. “I feel like a lot of huge moments that were self-defining, from relationships to family to love to hate, [and] all of it in between. We were figuring it out because I was 15 and she was 18, and we didn’t really know what was going on. So, we’ve never seen each other any differently. So, when I listen to it, I’m so impressed [by] how it’s eloquently put.”
Gomez said a second unreleased song, titled “Family” that was written “easily a decade ago,” also highlighted their bond as close friends. The lyrics speak of Gomez’s dreams of being in movies; while Swift’s ambitions were aimed at playing at sold-out stadiums. “Now, when I listen to that song, both of those things have happened for us,” she said.
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“We survived it, as best as we could,” Gomez laughed. “It’s absolutely unbelievable to come from 17 years of friendship, from multiple heartbreaks, and love stories, and fond stories and life — we both ended up, fortunately, being engaged around the same time, and that was the coolest.”
When Swift released “Dorothea” as part of her 2020 album Evermore, fans instantly believed the track was about Gomez with lyrics like “the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams” and “you’rе a queen sellin’ dreams, sellin’ makeup and magazines.”
