Selena Gomez Admits She Felt ‘Oversexualized’ With One Album Cover

Selena Gomez recently opened up about her music career, and admitted that she felt “oversexualized” with one of her past album covers. The confession came during The Hollywood Reporter’s Comedy Actress Emmy Roundtable, which also included Quinta Brunson, Bridget Everett, Tracee Ellis Ross, Amy Schumer, and Molly Shannon. “And then how someone like Selena, who was sexualized at such a young age, but you’ve just rejected that and have really found your own style and your own presence,” Schumer said. 

“Because I know they put you through a system and make you feel like this is how you have to do it,” she continued. “And especially when you’re getting that positive feedback and people are attracted to you, it takes a lot to go, ‘I’m going to go in this direction.’” Gomez then spoke up and said “it’s really unfair,” and then shared her experience. “I actually did an album cover and I was really ashamed after I did it,” Gomez said. “I had to work through those feelings because I realized it was attached to something deep that was going on. And it was a choice that I wasn’t necessarily happy that I made, but I think that I’ve done my best, at least I try to be myself.”

Gomez never explicitly stated which album she was referring to but Entertainment Tonight speculates that she’s possibly speaking about 2015’s Revival. The singer appeared nearly nude on the black and white album cover. The 29-year-old would have been around 22 years old at the time. “And I’m not an overly sexual person,” Gomez went on to say. “Sometimes I like to feel sexy, but that doesn’t mean it’s for somebody else. It can be for me.”

These days, the former Disney Channel star has been spending more time on her acting career. She’ll soon appear in the second season of Only Murders in the Building, a hit Hulu crime-comedy she stars in opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short. Notably, Schumer has also joined the show’s cast for its new season, along with Cara Delevingne and Shirley MacLaine.

Only Murders in the Building stars Martin, Short, and Gomez as three strangers connected by living in the same New York City apartment building but find camaraderie in their mutual love of true crime podcasts. After one of their neighbors winds up dead, the trio suspects his death was not the easily closable case the police find it to be, so they set out to investigate themselves and use the opportunity to create their own true-crime podcast. All is not as it seems, however, and the three new friends soon find their bond tested in ways that leave fans chuckling and wondering what mysteries might be around the next hallway. Only Murders in the Building Season 2 debuts June 28, only on Hulu.