Selena Gomez hasn’t quit music, but her focus is on acting now—so it’s no surprise that of the two awards shows this week, she is only attending one: this Sunday’s Emmys. The singer was not seen on the red carpet of tonight’s MTV VMAs, where her friend Taylor Swift leads with 12 nominations.
Gomez herself has no nominations this year, although she did release her singles “Single Soon” and “Love On” in the past year. She told Vanity Fair in her cover story released on Monday that she doesn’t have any current plans to release a new album.
“I don’t know if I’m ready, you know?” she said. “It’s a vulnerable space. Acting has always been my first love. Music is just a hobby that went out of control. Now it is a part of who I am, so I don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’m just not ready yet.”
She told Rolling Stone in March that she isn’t done music, though. “I think it’s natural for people to take breaks, but I think for me, there is a whole other aspect to my life, pride and joy,” Gomez said. “I love film. I love TV. I just feel like I haven’t done a lot of the things that I want to do in that space. It’s not that it’s ‘no, never’ [to music], it’s more that I would like to explore that world a bit more and have the time to actually do that.”
She added then that she “hopes” her next album comes out in 2024 but isn’t sure it will. Her latest two singles “might not be really reflective of the project that I’m working on,” she said. “They are in spirit, but I’m excited to explore more styles of music, and I think people will hopefully be surprised by the contrast. I like releasing songs that I love and I care about. I just released them into the world and later comes the full album.”
