Selena Gomez may retire from music after next album: 'I'm tired'

"The older I get, the more I’m kind of like, 'I would like to find something to just settle on.'"

Selena Gomez might be ready to put her music career on pause permanently. 

The Grammy-winning songstress, who began releasing music after starring on the beloved Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place, indicated that she may only release one more album before retiring from music to focus solely on her film and television career. 

“The older I get, the more I’m kind of like, ‘I would like to find something to just settle on,’” Gomez explained in a forthcoming episode of the SmartLess podcast which is available now to series subscribers, per Rolling Stone. “I do feel like I have one more album in me, but I would probably choose acting.”

Selena Gomez attends The Inaugural Rare Impact Fund Benefit Supporting Youth Mental Health Hosted by Selena Gomez at Nya Studios on October 04, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Selena Gomez.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

When podcast hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett told Gomez that she didn’t have to necessarily pick between both passions, she replied, “You’re right, but I am going to want to chill, because I’m tired.”

Gomez made her first television appearance when she was 10 on the children’s television series, Barney & Friends. In the years since, she starred as Alex on Wizards of Waverly Place, voiced Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise, and became part of everyone's favorite other podcast trio in the Emmy-winning series Only Murders in the Building — all while simultaneously embarking on two tours and recording multiple studio albums, singles, and music videos along the way. She dropped a new song, titled "Single Soon," last August.

But juggling both careers, Gomez explained, has had an effect on her health. “I went to a mental institute and canceled one of my tours,” she said. “It just got to me, because I love working and it distracts me from bad things.”

She also noted that it was her role on Wizards of Waverly Place that led her to even become a singer in the first place, calling Disney a "machine" that "forcefully require[d] that I know how to sing so I could sing the theme song."

"I wanted to be an actress, I never really intended on being a singer full-time, but apparently that hobby turned into something else," Gomez continued. "I don’t think I’m the best singer, but I do know how to tell stories and I love being able to make songs."

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