Fans Think The Weeknd's New Song, 'Thought I Knew You,' Is About Selena Gomez
It’s been a hot minute since Selena Gomez and The Weeknd were together: The two broke up in November after 10 months of dating (possibly earlier; The Weeknd just confirmed it by deleting a ton of pics of her from Instagram in November). Since then, she had a brief return to Bieber—prior to his engagement with Hailey Baldwin, of course—while The Weeknd is rumored to be on again with a certain Hadid. (Yes, that would be his ex Bella Hadid.)
But all this ~ drama ~ seems to have stirred The Weeknd’s melodic impulses: He dropped another song on Friday in collaboration with Nicki Minaj. It contains some telling lyrics (which he helped pen), and fans think it’s maybe-probably about Gomez.
There’s, uh, quite a bit going on here. After a first verse that’s basically The Weeknd being sad, he makes it clear he’s not into communication at the moment, while implying that he sees himself as a bit of a rebound—and he’s over it. “Nevermind, you were never mine for real,” he sings. “Hit my line, I’ma hit decline for real / I ain’t tryin’ for a second time for real.”
And then we get to the pre-chorus, in which The Weeknd alleges Gomez was playing the victim in the story, especially considering she’s incredibly popular on Instagram: “*Honestly, I think this shit excites you (excites you) / All that drama that you’re tied to (oh, yeah),” he sings. “You play the victim every time too.” So cold, but he forges on: “That shit came back and hit you times two.”
The whole thing about “times two”? As Elle points out, the “break” they were on turned into a breakup and boom, now Bieber’s engaged to Baldwin and The Weeknd is back with Hadid.
Fans were quick to dissect the track and point out some things:
There is precedent for such lyrics from The Weeknd: His My Dear Melancholy album, which dropped toward the end of March, also had a few seemingly pointed lyrics. Ah, young love and access to recording devices.
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