Selena Gomez’s determination to come fully into her own as she embarks upon her thirties seems to be continuing with the release of a new (well, remixed) single with Rema called “Calm Down” (and perhaps Selena was inspired to jump on the track as a result of wanting to have a similar song title to bestie Taylor Swift’s [i.e., “You Need to Calm Down”]).
On the heels of getting a hundred-million-dollar investment for her startup mental health media company, Wondermind, Gomez has also freshly announced a tailored-in-theme documentary called My Mind & Me. This being directed by none other than Alek Keshishian, the man best known for bringing Madonna’s diva antics to the silver screen via 1991’s Truth or Dare. So yes, one might say she’s feeling all kinds of “zen” right now. Finding her serenity through, ultimately, being comfortable in her own skin as one only can when they’re not in their twenties.
Gomez, who previously worked with the aforementioned Keshishian on the music video for “Hands to Myself,” has taken an almost similar approach in the concept to the video for Rema’s “Calm Down,” which also transpires in the theoretically claustrophobic environment of a house. Except, in this case, it’s more modest apartment than lavish multi-story home and the overtones are less stalker-y and decidedly more chill (which is part of why Gomez opens the single with, “Vibes”).
Regardless of the confined-to-an-apartment setting still giving many people PTSD as a result of the lockdown era brought on by coronavirus, something about the way Rema and Gomez manage to loll about in a standing position provides a sense of comfort rather than anxiety. Even if it’s well-known that a man telling a woman to “calm down” usually results in having the opposite effect. Maybe that’s why Rema felt it would be a good idea to include Gomez on a revamped version of the song, originally released in February of this year.
Speaking to that claustrophobic environment connoting a “lockdown feel,” Rema does happen to use the word “lockdown” in his lyrics, urging, “Baby, calm down, calm down/Girl, this your body put in my heart for lockdown, for lockdown, oh, lockdown.” In the apartment’s background, Gomez slowly (and somewhat awkwardly) comes to life (rising up from the couch) through her dance moves, wielding them to bide her time until her own singing portion arrives. So it is that she also makes use of the beaded curtains in the space by essentially recreating the album cover to Britney Spears’ Oops!…I Did It Again (and we all know that might have been very intentional considering the love shared between Brit and Selena).
And maybe there was even intention in the fact that Gomez is continuing to display an affinity for the Mexican household look displayed in her video for 2021’s “De Una Vez” (from the Revelación EP). For there are many painterly qualities to certain scenes, often spurred by the purposeful sense of mise-en-scène. This being especially noticeable when Gomez is sitting at the kitchen table in front of a bowl of tomatoes as Rema stands off to the side. It’s practically screaming Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
Soon, in her vest-worn-as-a-shirt ensemble, Gomez finally gets the chance to add her own verses, noting, “Yeah, I know I look shy but for you I get down, oh, woah/And my hips make you cry when I’m moving around you/Do it once, do it twice/I push back, you hold me tight/Get a taste for a night/Baby show me you can calm down, calm down/Dance with me and take the lead now, lead now/Got you so high that you can’t come down, come down/Don’t you ask, you know you’re allowed, allowed.” Except you probably should ask, because nothing’s sexier than consent.
By this point, the milieu of the video has shifted to an area that looks more deliberately like it wants to appear as a “set,” with a random fan (the kind for cooling, not, like, an obsessed person) standing next to a silver Porsche (offering what is likely the highest production value for the video). Another deliberately-looking-like-a-set tableau appears soon after, along with another costume change from both Rema and Gomez, the latter wearing a variation on the same sartorial motif of corset tops and jeans.
Gomez then teases, “Wanna give it all/But can’t promise that I’ll stay/And that’s the risk you take.” Not exactly a sentiment that would make anyone feel “calm” or secure about a relationship, but what’s to be expected in a century wherein everything is designed to be ephemeral? Maybe that’s why both Rema and Gomez look so “chill” at the end, for they both know full well that it is as Madonna said in 1998, “Nothing really matters”—so just relax and don’t bother trying to stress over the things that are patently out of your control… you know, like the callous actions of other people (e.g., Kim Kardashian saying she can “pick and choose” what works for her when it comes to mitigating climate change).
