Blogocentric Formulations

Lose You To Love Me

         

| Day 5 |





"Lose You To Love Me"
by Selena Gomez

While we're on the topic of music documentaries (originally mentioned in "When You're Gone" ), I discovered this song when I was watching the Selena Gomez documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me released on Apple TV+ in November 2022.

I'll admit that I've never really been a Selena Gomez fan. For years, she was just "another one of the Disney Channel kids" that were trying to break into more mature roles in film and television while also pursuing a career as a recording artist. I'd be hard-pressed to name more than a couple of her songs prior to 2018, and other than voicing the character of Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania franchise, the same was true of her film and television roles. She just wasn't really on my radar at all... until 2021.

In 2021, she was one of the three leads of Only Murders in the Building, a really delightful murder mystery dramedy series on Hulu, where she was part of a trio with Steve Martin and Martin Short. And, honestly, anyone who can hold their own against those two playing off each other has my attention. She was really great in the show (and has proven it's not a one-off by her equally great performance in the second season), and then I watched her documentary at the end of last year.

Unlike most music documentaries which follow the artist through a couple of tour dates or recording sessions on their current project, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me follows her for six years as she navigates her fame, her struggles with both physical aliments (lupus) and mental health issues (bipolar disorder). The video for the song she wrote for the documentary is actually a great snapshot at the whole process:

The documentary is really great. It's received a lot of praise for its transparency around mental health, and does an incredible job of showing someone who has genuine interests and thoughts and feelings trying to reconcile all that with a job that wants her to just be entertainment for the world. There's a part in the documentary where, after showing her taking a trip to Africa and really becoming passionate about humanitarian work, she's asked a serious of vapid questions about her music and her life... until one interviewer asks her a question about her other interests. You can see Selena visibly brighten and talk about her passion for philanthropy and humanitarian work... and the interviewer abruptly cuts her off after the first sentence and you see her absolutely devastated when she realizes they just wanted a soundbite and didn't actually care about anything she had to say.

This song played during the documentary and, more than "My Mind & Me," there's something about thing song that really resonates with me and the message of the film about just struggling to get through your life and find meaning in it. I have a whole newfound respect for Selena Gomez and her journey now, and I'm really excited to see what she does next.