Selena Gomez—Igniting Success with Latina Flair

By Brady Rhoades   

As executive producer and co-star of the Hulu hit Only Murders in the Building, Selena Gomez has captivated millions of viewers.

Her character, Mabel Mora, is quiet, artistic, sardonic, eerie.

She loves to entangle herself in whodunnit killings. She’s a natural-born sleuth. Or…for all we know, she’s in on the crimes.

Nobody can figure her out. She’s as puzzling as the puzzles she’s trying to solve.

In real life, Gomez is an open book—with 427 million Instagram followers (she’s in the Guinness Book of World Records) and magazine covers galore—but she’s complex, nevertheless.

“She is so lovely as a human, she’s so remarkable as a talent and she just has an aura and this lovely spirit,” Martin Short, fellow co-star on Only Murders, told People Magazine. “Our friendship grows and grows.”

A Heartfelt Advocate

For years, health issues have plagued the 31-year-old Gomez. She copes with Lupus, a condition that involves the immune system attacking healthy tissues and organs. She underwent a kidney transplant as a result.

Which is where loved ones stepped up.

“There aren’t words to describe how I can possibly thank my beautiful friend, Francia Raisa,” Gomez announced after a successful procedure in 2017. “She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me. I am incredibly blessed. I love you so much, sis.”

Gomez also deals with depression, anxiety and panic attacks, and feels an obligation to reach out to others.

She’s at the forefront of a movement to raise awareness and improve treatment for those with mental health issues. She’s been a spokeswoman for UNICEF, which raises money for children around the world. She’s also active in organizations that re-home stray and displaced dogs.

“We have only one life, and it is very precious, and there’s a lot we can do, and there’s a lot we should do,” she said.

Speaking of health, she has little use for bullies, who, through experience, she’s managed to nudge to the margins. “I believe in second chances, but I don’t believe in third and fourth chances.”

Rare Beauty Revolution

What new achievement can match Only Murders, which has charmed its way into the American zeitgeist and attracted guest stars Meryl Streep, Sting and others?

How about appearing on the May cover of Time Magazine for, according to Time, revolutionizing the celebrity beauty industry?

Gomez’s $2 billion business, Rare Beauty, offers a liquid highlighter, body and hair mist and other products with names such as Positive Light and Find Comfort.

Gomez said Rare Beauty jumpstarted her empathy for people struggling with mental health. So, she launched the company with a philanthropic arm, the Rare Impact Fund.

The goal is to raise $100 million in the brand’s first 10 years and give 1% of profits to the fund. In 2023, a popular liquid blush raised $70 million, for instance. The Rare Impact Fund has given grants to about 30 organizations across five continents working to improve mental health.

Gomez says fans comment as much about her business as they do about her acting and singing.

“That’s what makes me most proud,” she said. “When I’m able to have something like Rare or a [music] single that people can relate to, I get so much joy when people say, ‘Hey, that helped me through a difficult time.’” 

On a spring 2024 episode of The Jimmy Kimmel Show, in which Martin Short guest-hosted, Gomez applied Rare cosmetics to the 74-year-old Short in what turned out to be a fan-favorite scene. “You’ve taken about 57 years off my life,” Short said.

“I’m proud of it,” Gomez said of Rare, which is used on the set of Only Murders. “It’s got meaning, and it’s practical.”

Multi-Talented Maven

Gomez was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, in 1992 (she later moved to Los Angeles). Her parents, Mandy Teefy and Ricardo Gomez, named her after Selena Quintanilla Perez, who was known as the queen of Tejano music.

Gomez started her career as a child actress, starring in the children’s TV series Barney & Friends (2002–2004). She emerged as a teen idol for her leading role as Alex Russo on the sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2012).

As a recording artist, she signed with Hollywood Records in 2008 and formed the band, Selena Gomez & The Scene. She’d become a pop icon. The next dozen years have been a whirlwind of activity and accomplishments.

She released solo studio albums, and each ascended to the U.S. Billboard 200. Her debut, Stars Dance, yielded the international top-10 single, “Come & Get It.” Gomez signed with Interscope Records and released the electropop set Revival in 2015. Its 2020 follow-up, Rare, included Gomez’s first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, “Lose You to Love Me.”

Spanish-language music followed with the EP Revelación, which earned her GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Award nominations. Gomez has also released collaborative singles, including “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” “It Ain’t Me,” “Wolves,” “Taki Taki” and “Calm Down.” The latter became the most commercially successful afro-beats song of all time and the best-selling collaboration of 2023.

Gomez voiced Mavis in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise. On television, she produced the teen drama series 13 Reasons Why, the documentary Living Undocumented and her cooking show, Selena + Chef.

For her artistry, she’s received the Cannes Film Festival Award, an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, two MTV Video Music Awards and 16 Guinness World Records. She earned nominations for five Emmy Awards, two GRAMMY Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Renaissance Woman

Since teen-hood, she’s been tabloid fodder, in part because she’s dated famous men (Justin Bieber being the most well-known) and partly because we live in a social media world.

But she’s drawn boundaries. First, she’s not impressed by so-called cool men. She prefers polite and genuine (she has a boyfriend, guys). Second, she stopped looking at social media. “I woke up one morning and looked at Instagram, like every other person, and I was done,” she told Vogue. “I was tired of reading horrible things.”

The superstar struck gold once again with Only Murders, which is scheduled to launch its fourth season in August. It’s different than anything she’s done. Viewers have fallen in love with Mabel (Gomez), Oliver (Short), Charles (Steve Martin) and their goofy friendship. Mabel is about 30, and Short and Martin’s characters are in their 70s.

But they all share two things: 1) They live in the historic Arconia on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; 2) They’re crime nerds. When murders scandalize the Arconia (lots of murders), they morph into a comical-but-capable homicide bureau.

In three seasons, Mabel, who viewers suspect is an investigator extraordinaire or quite possibly a cunning killer, is a topic at breakfast tables, around water coolers and all over social media. She’s one of the most oft-quoted characters on TV.

Here are four of her most memorable lines:

• “Women who knock rarely make history.”
• “I’m a stranger who lied to you a bunch, and you’re two randos that dragged me into a podcast,” she tells Oliver and Charles.
• “Do I wanna break into a dead guy’s apartment and go through all his s***(expletive)? Sounds like an afternoon.”
• “Sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I imagine brutally murdering that dude, and I’m out like a light. Works every time.”

There’s a phrase that captures Gomez: renaissance woman. A showbiz triple threat, the likes of which we haven’t seen since JLo. A business tycoon. A philanthropist.

But what’s at the core of it? That’s the intrigue, the unusualness, of Gomez. Fans think they know but keep tuning in for more hints as to what drives her to such heights, or at least what’s next; but for now, let’s start with her own words, spoken publicly on several occasions:

“I find strength in what hurts me.”

Read more articles for the Hispanic community here.

This article was originally published on diversitycomm.net.