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About

Genius Annotation

The existence of Gomez’s title track, “Rare,” was first confirmed on August 16, 2018, when she went on an Instagram live to share that her “favorite song [off her new album is the title track].”

The song is a self-empowerment anthem about independence and self-love.

A demo now speculated to be sung by co-writer Madison Love (singer-songwriter Emily Warren was intially credited) leaked in full back in late 2018, causing a frenzy on Twitter.

The song’s lyrics were then later teased in an interview with ELLE on September 4, 2018.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Selena Gomez say about "Rare"?
Genius Answer

During an interview with Apple Music, Selena said this about the title track:

[Rare] actually is a word that sums up what the purpose of my position is, which is letting people know that they are completely unique within who they are. That’s the biggest thing, right? It’s like, they don’t fit in, or they feel like they need to be a certain way… it’s very scary to know who they’re looking up to. I think it was such a perfect description of how i think girls, or women, are meant to feel. It’s even acknowledging: I don’t have it all, but I do know that I’m worth something. I’m not gonna settle and I’m gonna wait, ‘cause there is something out there that is gonna give me that feeling that i deserve and I want.

What inspired "Rare"?
Verified Commentary
Selena Gomez
Genius Answer

So Nolan, he and I have had a relationship since, like I started working on ‘Revival’ and he had this idea and he presented it to me, and I thought it was so beautiful. He’s like, “This is your message.” Because I think anyone who knows me knows that I have such a heart for people and all I want to do is encourage people and make people feel normal, make people know that it’s not always going to be okay. But that’s all right. We’ll all get through this because life’s not going to be perfect, and I am very vulnerable with my fans, and that’s where it started. That was over four years ago. It was a very long time because we weren’t sure what the album was even going to sound like, what it was going to be. But I knew that this was the starting point, so I actually made that the reference for the rest of the four years. Like, how were we going to go off of that message? How was I going to translate my story to each of the songs and the words, what they mean, how they feel, so it’s a very important song to me, and it’s a very important word to me as well.

How did the song come about?
Verified Commentary
Selena Gomez
Genius Answer

It was definitely broken down when we first had Rare, when I heard it, and so then after that we tried different production. We tried different vocals. I probably recorded it four different times, adding adlibs, adding things here and there. Then finally we got to a place that it sounded perfect, but I was getting confused at that point, because you try so many things and you don’t know what that one is going to feel like. I’m glad we went with the one we did because it’s nice. I like it.

Selena Gomez "Rare" Official Lyrics & Meaning | Verified
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Credits
Produced By
Performance Rights
Video Director
Vocal Producer
Mixing Engineer
Mastering Engineer
Guitar
Background Vocals
Assistant Recording Engineer
Release Date
January 10, 2020
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