By Zoe Papadakis | Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Selena Gomez has confirmed that Taylor Swift’s song “Dorothea” was written about her, settling long-standing fan speculation regarding the track’s inspiration.
Gomez made the revelation during an appearance on her husband and music producer Benny Blanco’s podcast “Friends Keep Secrets,” where she discussed their decades-long friendship.
“Well, ‘Dorothea’ is about me,” Gomez said. “It was one of her songs that captured a time when I was 15 and she was 18 — huge moments that were self-defining from relationships to family to love to hate, all of it in between. We didn’t really know what we were doing, but we were figuring it out together.”
The song appears on Swift’s album “Evermore,” which the singer previously described as a “sister album” to her 2020 project “Folklore.” At that time, Swift noted the album blended fiction with real-life elements, characterizing its tracks as “imaginary/not imaginary tales.”
Speaking about “Dorothea,” Swift has stated it tells the story of a girl who leaves her small town to chase Hollywood dreams. Gomez revealed that listeners have long speculated the lyrics reference her due to lines like “You’re a queen sellin’ dreams, sellin’ makeup and magazines” and “Your mom and her pageant schemes.” Gomez’s mother entered her in beauty pageants when she was younger, a detail fans have pointed to as a connection.
Gomez also disclosed that Swift wrote an unreleased song titled “Family” over a decade ago, reflecting their friendship and ambitions at the time. The track described Gomez’s hopes of acting in films and Swift’s musical aspirations.
“According to Gomez, the lyrics portrayed her having ‘these amazing dreams’ of working in movies,” she added. “And Swift wrote that ‘in every crowd, I still see you.’ Then her part was, ‘you believe in my stupid dreams, like playing stadiums.’ Now, when I listen to those songs, both of those things have happened for us.”
Gomez and Swift have been friends since they were teenagers. Their bond began after each experienced breakups with members of the Jonas Brothers in the late 2000s.
“We all know and love each other now,” Gomez told Jake Shane on the “Therapuss” podcast. “We didn’t know what we were doing — but she and I like to say the best thing we got out of those relationships was each other.”
