Step aside, Drake: Selena Gomez has come out as a Rihanna super fan—and she openly admitted her love of RiRi has caused some minor complications with dating. Gomez joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio show to play her at-home playlist. Rihanna was featured, of course, and Gomez gushed about her to Lowe.
“All I’m going to say is from the get go, I’ve been a Rihanna fan,” Gomez started. “‘SOS’ to now. So there isn’t any real moment that it isn’t gold, but ‘Love on the Brain’, and when she performed that live, I think that’s one of the greatest songs of our time. I just think that the way she sings that song—”
“I have to ask you, is she—because we’ve all got one—is she your favorite?” Lowe asked.
“Oh, I mean, yeah,” Gomez replied. “Yes. I have a whole book in there dedicated to Rihanna in my living room.”
“What?” Lowe replied.
“It’s there,” Gomez continued. “And it’s not a good idea to have around when you want guys there, but oh well.”
Gomez is likely talking about the Rihanna coffee table book, featuring photography of her, that came out last year. For context, Gomez says she has been single the past two years. With the COVID-19 pandemic, dating is not currently a priority, she wrote on Instagram ahead of the release of her new song “Boyfriend.” So her quote about having guys over is about her life pre-quarantine.
Gomez praised several other female artist during the broadcast, including Stevie Nicks, Billie Eilish, and Gomez’s good friend Taylor Swift.
Gomez said she’s never met Nicks but considers it a bucket list item: “Yeah, it is. I mean, ideally I would have probably, at my wedding, would love for Stevie or someone in that world to sing at my wedding. That’s like music, you know?”
On Eilish, Gomez spoke about how emotional she gets listening to “Everything I Wanted.”
“First I’ll say just the understanding she—she already knows of what this industry can be and become,” Gomez started. “And when I heard that song I just sobbed because I’ve been doing this for so long and it’s like, damn, that’s so true. There’s so many moments where I was just like, Oh, it doesn’t matter who you are. There’s moments in my life that’s like ‘is this it?'”
“She deserved every single thing that she got and has,” Gomez continued. “She’s an amazing, amazing artist.”
And Gomez of course called Swift one of the best songwriters. She praised “Lover,” saying, “There’s nothing really to say other than this is another song that shows her ability to take it back to the old, to also combine it with her challenging to do new things with her music.”
“I’ll always, not even biased, just think she is one of the greatest songwriters,” Gomez continued.