Entertainment

Selena Gomez releases first new album in more than four years

Rare addresses a tumultuous period in the pop star’s life.
Rare addresses a tumultuous period in the pop star’s life. Rare addresses a tumultuous period in the pop star’s life.

Selena Gomez has released her highly anticipated latest album, Rare.

The album, her first since 2015’s Revival, addresses a tumultuous few years for the pop star, which included health troubles, a kidney transplant and failed relationships.

Rare’s lead single, the previously released Lose You To Love Me, is widely believed to be about Gomez’s final break-up with Justin Bieber while on Dance Again she sings the “trauma’s in remission.”

Gomez has been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus and has also been open about her continued struggles with mental health.

The rapper Kid Cudi joins Gomez on A Sweeter Place, the album’s closing song.

Shortly after Rare was released, Gomez wrote on Instagram: “HERE IT IS!!! My album is officially out in the universe.. thank you for the souls that worked on this with me. Now it’s yours. Hope you like it.”

Gomez, a former Disney child star, told Spotify the album had been a “nightmare” to create, but “in the best way possible”.

She said: “I thought that I was so ready like two years ago. I had collected all of these sessions, beautiful sessions, that I don’t even remember half of them because it evolved each year.

“And then something would happen to me and it would be very drastic, so that it would take me somewhere else.”

Gomez, 27, added: “And then all of a sudden I found this healing, and I saw something bigger than what I thought that I was. And I think that also added the whole end of the album.”

Rare contains 13 tracks, including Look At Her Now, Ring, Vulnerable and People You Know.