Selena Gomez has been a performer for essentially her whole life. Her earliest film and TV credits on IMDb are the part of Gianna on Barney & Friends (from 2002 to 2004) and her breakout role in 2003’s Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over as Waterpark Girl. She didn’t pursue music professionally until a few years after that, but as a recent Instagram post from Gomez proves, she always had the music in her.
In a throwback video that Gomez shared yesterday, a much younger version of herself sings Britney Spears’ “Don’t Go Knockin’ On My Door.” Between the sunglasses, the colorful green screen backgrounds, and Gomez’s unbridled passion, the clip is a delightful sight to behold. Gomez captioned her post, “the hustle was real.”
Gomez’s adoration of Spears didn’t stop with this video. She showed love for Spears’ 2011 album Femme Fatale shortly after its release, writing on social media, “I am so obsessed with @britneyspears’s new record!! Soooo amazing!” In 2012, Gomez was asked who her childhood and then-current heroes were and she responded on Twitter, “my inspirations when I was a kid were Hilary Duff and Britney Spears and of course my Mom then and now.” During a 2013 press event for Spring Breakers, Gomez and her co-stars sang “…Baby One More Time” on karaoke. Spears shared the video and tweeted, “Awww @selenagomez can duet with me anytime. PS- I heard @springbreakers is AAA-MAZING! Can’t wait to see it!” Gomez was floored, tweeting in response, “I can’t breath. My life is made! Thank you!!”