BE A LITTLE FAMOUS TO EVERYBODY …
➽ FOR MOST OF entertainment history, there was only one path to superstardom: You had to get really good at doing one specific thing, then keep doing that thing until it brought you mainstream attention. Now, there are limits to how far doing just one thing can take you. Audiences have sorted themselves into algorithmically programmed media bubbles, none quite alike, which makes widespread cultural penetration difficult. Success in a single area—a hit movie or TV show—is no guarantee of broad awareness. If you want to get really big in 2024, you need a diversified approach. This dynamic has inspired plenty of young stars to become multi-hyphenates, but nobody wields their hyphens better than Selena Gomez. Gomez is extremely well known but not just for one thingA and not just to one audience. She’s sort of an actress and kind of a singer, but her greatest skill is her ability to spread herself across a wide range of projects and pursuits, strategically choosing far-flung collaborators (Steve Martin, Gucci Mane) to maximize her reach. Her professional and social networks make Kevin Bacon’s look small, and even your parents have heard of her.
A brief, incomplete recap: Gomez has entertained young millennial viewers on TV’S Barney & Friends and Wizards of Waverly Place, septuagenarians on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and foodies on her HBO Max cooking show, Selena + Chef. She has been in movies directed by Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers) and Jim Jarmusch (The Dead Don’t Die). She’s among the most streamed pop artists in Spotify history, thanks in part to appearances on songs with international stars like Rema, Kygo, and DJ Snake. She’s the founder of a $2 billion cosmetics company (Rare Beauty) and a mentalhealth charity (Rare Impact Fund). She’s also a tabloid Zelig with reported past romantic entanglements that include Justin Bieber, Nick Jonas, and Zayn Malik. All of this activity has added up. Gomez is the most popular woman on Instagram with more followers (428 million) than her friend Taylor Swift (283 million). When cameras caught Gomez talking with Swift at January’s Golden Globes, fans speculated she had been gossiping about either Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner or her Only Murders co-stars Martin Short and Meryl Streep. It’s proof of Gomez’s galaxy-bridging reach that either seemed plausible. She’s famous in everybody’s bubble.