Selena Gomez is never truly alone, my dear. Five years after Taylor Swift released her album Evermore, the founder of Rare Beauty took a moment to reflect on their enduring friendship, revealing that she was the inspiration behind Taylor's track "Dorothea." " 'Dorothea' is about me," she shared during a March 3 episode of her husband Benny Blanco's podcast, Friends Keep Secrets. "I feel like many significant moments that defined us, from relationships to family to love and hate, we were figuring it out together when I was just 15 and she was 18."
"We didn't really know what was going on," she continued. "We've never seen each other differently. When I listen to it, I'm so impressed by how eloquently it's put." Fans speculated that the eighth track on Taylor's ninth album was about Selena, especially with the nod to Dorothea selling dreams and makeup, but neither confirmed the rumors.
"You know you'll always know me / Dorothea," Taylor sang. "You're a queen selling dreams / Selling makeup and magazines / From you, I'd buy anything / Hey, Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me?"
When the "Enchanted" singer—whom Selena befriended in 2008 while Taylor was dating Joe Jonas and she was in a relationship with Nick Jonas—released the project, she shared insight into the song and its connection to her next track, "'Tis the damn season."
"Before I knew it, there were 17 tales, some of which are mirrored or intersect with one another," she explained on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020. "Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase Hollywood dreams—and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame."
It turns out Selena also inspired another song by Taylor, which hadn't been released. "There's this song that Taylor wrote about us and it was called 'Family'," she explained to Benny and co-hosts Lil Dicky and Kristin Batalucco. "It was over, easily, a decade ago. The lyrics insinuate, without quoting, that it is basically saying you have these amazing dreams. You want to be in a movie, in every crowd I see you."
"Then her part was, you believe in my stupid dreams, like playing stadiums," the 33-year-old noted. "Now, when I listen to those songs, both of those things have happened for us. And that's really sweet because back then, she was just like, 'I wrote this song about us and it was just our story,' and it was the sweetest thing."
Selena's bond with Taylor—who is currently engaged to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce—has only strengthened as they got older. "It's absolutely unbelievable to come from 17 years of friendship, from multiple heartbreaks and love stories and fun stories in life," she reflected. "We both ended up, fortunately, being engaged around the same time, and that was the coolest part."
