Selena Gomez just gave her best song a surprising music video
Selena Gomez’s latest album Revival was sprinkled throughout with some really standout tracks, and one in particular stood out in the best way — “Hands To Myself,” a bubbly ode to infatuation and physical desire. It’s the musical equivalent of a glass of champagne: Flirty, but with more punch than you might expect. So it’s both hilarious and a little disconcerting that Gomez’s video for the track, which dropped today, is um, kind of dark.
Gomez’s videos tend to be pretty straight-forward — see her previous ones for album tracks “Good For You” and “Same Old Love.” But for “Hands To Myself,” she took the song’s inherently okay-this-might-be-a-bit-creepy vibe (sample lyrics: “My doctor say you’re no good / But people say what they wanna say / And you should know if I could / I’d breathe you in every single day”) and ramps the tension up. Even as she fixes her gaze on the out-of-frame object of her obsession, itself a rampant music video trope, she’s breaking into his house, rolling around in his sheets sans him, and making giant photo collages of her imagined paramour.
As a music video for a light-hearted, sexy song? It’s pretty weird. As a meta-commentary on intense/scary fan interactions? It makes its point. (Gomez herself has sadly been the target for that kind of stalking and harassment.) Watch for yourself below:
