Before Selena Gomez was a solo pop superstar, she had her band, Selena Gomez & The Scene. Gomez had plenty of success with the group and one of the biggest songs from that era was “Who Says,” the lead single from When The Sun Goes Down, the third and final album by the band. The song has since been certified multi-platinum single and is the second-most streamed Selena Gomez & The Scene song on Spotify, with about 420 million plays.
selena fought to get “who says” and im really grateful that she won cus I can’t imagine this song with anyone more than her
pic.twitter.com/m2Bcg5lbRz
— ‘ (@littleselss) August 23, 2023
It turns out, though, that initially, the song was given to another artist. In a recent interview as part of the Twilio Signal 2023 conference, Gomez explained how this crushed her and what the song still means to her, saying:
“So, it’s actually a funny story. I was working with Disney at the time, and they were actually giving the song to another artist. I cried — I remember I was with my mom — because I loved the song so much. I basically said to my label, ‘I feel like my fans are young and they need it.’ That’s all I kept saying because I was 16 at the time, and I was like, ‘I think my fans really need it, tell [them] my fans really need this song.’ And so maybe it just didn’t work out with the other artist, but that was a gift to me that I did not know I needed. I love that song, and it has carried with me through my whole career, and I fought for it. So to be honest, I, to this day, need to hear it.”
As for the other artist, it would appear Gomez is likely referring to Jordin Sparks. In a 2021 TikTok video, Sparks revealed, “Fun Fact: Back in 2010, I recorded ‘Who Says.’ I loved the message of this one. It ended up being a great fit for Selena Gomez. She killed it!!”
Check out a clip from the interview above and revisit “Who Says” below.