‘I’m tired’: Selena Gomez hints at major career change in candid interview

Selena Gomez has hinted that her next album could be her last, as she considers focusing instead on her acting career.

The US artist, 31, rose to fame as a star on the Disney Channel before launching as a pop singer, releasing a string of hits including “Hands to Myself”, “Rare” and “Bad Liar”.

She launched a cooking show, Selena + Chef, in 2020 and, the following year, received critical praise for her lead role in Hulu’s comedy-mystery Only Murders in the Building, opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short.

Appearing on the latest episode of the SmartLess podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, Gomez explained that she wants to settle on one thing going forward.

“I started having a lot of fun with music and then touring was really fun,” she said, according to an E! News report. “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.”

However, Gomez added, the older she got, the more she realised she wanted “to find something to just settle on”.

“I do feel like I have one more album in me but I would probably choose acting,” she said.

As the podcast hosts praised Gomez for her musical talents and suggested she didn’t have to choose, she responded: “You’re right, but I am going to want to chill because I’m tired.”

In the same interview, she discussed the toll on her mental well-being after dealing with a heavy workload from a young age.

In 2016, Gomez made the difficult decision to cancel her tour due to ongoing struggles with her mental health.

“It just got to me because I love working and it distracts me from bad things,” she said.

The Emmy-nominated star also revealed that her music career was something of an accident. After she recorded the theme song for Wizards, her bosses at Disney asked if she was interested in recording an album.

“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,” she said.

Gomez, who is currently dating fellow musician and producer Benny Blanco, is also behind the cosmetics line Rare Beauty, which she launched during the Covid pandemic.

In July 2020, she announced the launch of the Rare Impact Fund, which pledged to raise $100m over the next 10 years to help address the gaps in mental health services for underserved communities.

The SmartLess podcast episode featuring Gomez will be released on 7 January.