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Selena Gomez Drops Narrated Version of ‘I Said I Love You First’ — Plus ‘Stained,’ an Unreleased Track From Eight Years Ago
More goodies have arrived with the release of Gomez and Benny Blanco's new album.
Fans who can’t get enough of Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco‘s I Said I Love You First have more to explore with a newly released version of the album, I Said I Love You First – Explained: Narrated by Selena Gomez.
As Gomez explained on Sunday (March 23) in posts on social media, “benny and I made so many amazing memories throughout the process of creating our new album. I wanted to let you guys in on some of those stories and the making of these songs. I Said I Love You First – Explained: Narrated by Selena Gomez is available for digital download on my official store now!”
Partners in music and romance (the couple announced their engagement in December), Gomez and Blanco unveiled their joint album — the follow-up to Gomez’s 2020 set, Rare, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 that year — on Friday, March 21. I Said I Love You First‘s full release was preceded by singles including “Call Me When You Break Up” featuring Gracie Abrams and “Sunset Blvd.”
Also new from Gomez and Blanco this weekend is a surprise release of a bonus track, with a title that should sound familiar to longtime fans.
Some time pre-Rare, but after 2015’s Revival, Gomez was brewing up music that never saw a release. From that era is a song called “Stained,” originally produced by Blanco, and first teased in 2016 when the singer shared a snippet. The track eventually leaked in full on the internet, but didn’t make the cut on either of Gomez’s next two albums.
“Eight years later and you guys never forgot about this song,” she wrote to fans over the weekend. “Your love for Stained has never gone away and I wanted to do something special to say thank you for all the love and support on the album. Stained is now available exclusively on my official store for a limited time only.”
In a livestream that was recorded by a fan over the weekend, Gomez gave listeners (and Blanco, who was on the stream with her) some background on what had happened with “Stained,” saying, “You know, I actually loved that song and I was nervous … I remember I was still nervous to curse in a song. I don’t know what happened. I’m sure I leaked it on accident, or I did something. But it got out, and I’m kind of happy that it did.”
I Said I Love You First – Explained: Narrated by Selena Gomez is available as a digital download for $5 on Gomez’s webstore here. A digital download of her I Said I Love You First album with bonus track “Stained” is also priced at $5, and it can be found on Gomez’s webstore here.
See Gomez’s TikTok clips below to catch her singing along to “Stained.” She also shares details about the narrated version of I Said I Love You First, noting, “Basically I get to tell a little story about each song on the album, so I can explain it to you guys and you can see how I view them. I’d love to know your thoughts as well and how you relate to it all.”
