Following her 2015 album Revival, Selena Gomez began work on her second album with her new label Interscope. This led to a slew of singles and solidified musical concepts that dwindled away and later on built back up in a new form for her 2020 album, Rare.
In between these two records is a project that has been coined Seven Heavens by her fans. With a darker sound, vintage-inspired visuals, and a new approach to pop music for the singer, the album was lost, leaving fans to pick up the pieces and speculate what could have been.
2016-2017 rewind
Gomez first previewed this new era of songs while on tour for her album Revival. The singer posted a clip of her now-released song “Stained” back in 2016. She teased the track while backstage and mentioned she wanted to share more of this incoming era. “Stained” was later released in 2025 for the deluxe version of her collaborative album with music producer and fiancé Benny Blanco titled I Said I Love You First.
@selenamariegomez08 Stained by selena! @Selena Gomez bia #snapchat #explore #selenagomez #stained ♬ original sound – Selenagomez
Another sneak peek at this era was a song titled “Feel Me”. This track was debuted live during Selena Gomez’s Revival Tour. The track was rumored to be on the next album that Gomez kept hinting about on her social media. This track was later released in 2020 for the deluxe version of Gomez’s album Rare.
“Bad Liar”
The first released taste of the Seven Heavens era was Gomez’s 2017 track “Bad Liar”. “Bad Liar” is a quick-witted and catchy pop track sampling “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads. Praised by critics and publications, this track marked a powerful sonic shift for Selena. Billboard slated “Bad Liar” as the best track from 2017, citing it as:
“A weird little moment of frustrated melody and imperfect romance that may prove to be a high point in Gomez’s increasingly fascinating career. On paper, “Bad Liar” doesn’t make much sense, but that’s why it doesn’t exist on paper.”
Jason Lipshutz, Billboard
“Bad Liar’s” visuals
Aside from the sonics, the most captivating and important part of the Seven Heavens era were the visuals. Primarily influenced by visionary Petra Collins, the era took shape around her work. Collins is known for her distinctive, dark, and eerie stylistic approach to photography, with touches of dreamy, glossy, and rich editing.
Collins shot the cover art for the single, as shown above, and filmed the vertical video for Selena’s Spotify page. This made Gomez the first artist to start this trend that has taken visuals on the platform by storm. This marked the first official musical collaboration between the pair. Following the release of “Bad Liar”, Gomez put out the video and was met with critical acclaim. In the video, Gomez is shown playing all the main characters.
While the video is rich in all ways, the main focus for the sake of dissecting her creative approach was teasing her future songs. During the basketball/gym scene, Gomez can be seen wearing a jersey that spells out “Wolves,” a song that was released five months after “Bad Liar” in October.
Additionally, the players on the other team are wearing jerseys that say “Fetish”. This track was the follow-up single released two months after. The song titles on the shirts are very important, as they parallel to Gomez’s songs. Additionally, at the end of the music video, a clip of the “Fetish” video was teased saying “Coming soon”. The planning and teasing of what was expected showcased the careful release cycle that Gomez and her creative team were planning.
“Fetish”
A few months after the release of “Bad Liar”, Gomez started the social media promo for her next single “Fetish”. This single was the heart of the Seven Heavens era, as the experimental visuals and drastic shift in sonics were praised by fans all around.
The video for this song stood out for an abundance of reasons. The visuals were bright, however haunting and eerie in comparison to the song’s catchy production and sultry vocals. Petra Collins directed the video and was involved in the photography and stylistic elements. “Fetish” showcased Gomez in a light that fans have never seen before, which is what made this release so shocking and pivotal.
Gomez was also teasing the release of the collaborative single “Taki Taki” in the clip shown above. There was a bag of Takis placed perfectly in the corner of the cabinet in the kitchen scene from “Fetish”. “Taki Taki” was released in September 2018, a whole year and two months after the release of “Fetish”. These details showcase the planning that went on behind the scenes.
Another important event to note was that the full demo version of “Stained” leaked the day “Fetish” was released. “Stained” was imagined to be the follow-up to “Fetish” as the songs shared similar production styles. No one knows why this song leaked the same day or what happened with its planned rollout.
Gomez’s health conditions
A few months after the release of “Fetish,” Gomez announced via Instagram that she had undergone surgery for a kidney transplant. She detailed how complications with her lupus, required her to get the transplant. Gomez’s close friend Francia Rasia donated her kidney to Gomez.
In her social media post, Gomez mentioned how she noticed everyone online taking notice of her absence from the promotion of her new music, which she mentioned being immensely proud of. These surgeries and adjustments to life with a new kidney took a toll on her personal life, rightfully so. With health at the forefront of her life, Selena started pushing music and other projects to the back.
“Wolves”
“Wolves” was released in October 2018, a month after Gomez announced she underwent surgery for her kidney transplant. This release picked up the timeline of this era from the “Wolves” shirt shown in the “Bad Liar” music video back in May of 2017.
A pivotal moment that solidified the “Seven Heavens” era were photos posted to Selena’s instagram after her performance of “Wolves” at the 2018 American Music Awards. Gomez’s performance showcased a darker side to the star, and featured a stage design that fit the aesthetics that this era was embodying.
The photos above show Gomez wearing a shirt that says Seven Heavens in red text. The photos are taken on Polaroids by Petra Collins and match the aesthetic that’s been crafted for months. In addition, the song titles on shirts fueled fans to name this era Seven Heavens. It was never directly confirmed as the album’s official title; However, Gomez mentioned it years later, which we will also get into.
Rare & pieces of Seven Heavens
In 2020, Selena released her second album with Interscope Records titled Rare. Rare contained a lot of elements from the Seven Heavens era. This indicated to fans it was scrapped and re-formulated to fit her life at the time, as this era was roughly three years behind her.
Rare picked up where Gomez left off in some regards, featuring songs fans remembered from the Seven Heavens era. One of the songs, “Kinda Crazy”, was teased back in 2016 while Gomez was on the Revival Tour. This song made it onto the record as well as “Feel Me”, a song that was performed on the Revival Tour and later released on the deluxe version of Rare.
Other than the tracklist, Rare featured more similar moments from the half-lived Seven Heavens era. The song and album titles on shirts carried over, making their way on the cover of the standard version of the Rare album. Polaroids and some of the photos from shoots during that era were also used for lyric videos, album inserts, and the album cover promo clip shown below.
Overall, Rare had elements of Seven Heavens and also many elements that made it its own project. This record showcased Gomez in a mature, introspective, and confident light that only time, and life experience could bring.
The confusing resurrection of Seven Heavens
Anticipating the release of the collaborative album announced between Benny Blanco & Selena Gomez, Seven Heavens was brought up in many ways. Gomez tapped into fan requests with the dark visuals. The album’s artwork was shot by Petra Collins. The cover featured a keyhole with a dark orange lit room with the pair in a bedroom. One of the singles’ music videos, “Sunset Blvd,” was shot by Collins as well. On the album, songs like “Cowboy” and “You Said You Were Sorry” were mentioned, sharing the Seven Heavens-esque sounds that fans loved.
After the album’s release, Gomez announced she would be releasing “Stained” almost a decade after initially teasing it. Fans were excited and thought this resurrection could mean something for the lost album. This was fueled further by Gomez’s demeanor and comments during online streaming parties, and Q&A answers.
In the video above, Gomez stopped herself shortly when the album’s name was mentioned. She laughed it off while her fiancé, Benny Blanco, read the name out in full. The pair seemed to be avoiding the questions and not confirming or denying the record being released. This led fans to rejoice and conspire on various social media platforms.
Additionally, Gomez released a track, “That’s When I’ll Care” (Seven Heavens‘ Version). This track was for the deluxe version of the album titled I Said I Love You First… And You Said It Back.
Moving forward
Seven Heavens is a prime example of lost media and something that will remain lost for the foreseeable future. We have bits and pieces of what could have been from that era, which will have to be enough.
Selena has addressed the era multiple times and touched on its existence. We have songs from that era sprinkled throughout her solo career, spanning from 2016. Her next project is something that will either be a completely different record or something that could dip her feet back in the pool that is Seven Heavens.
