Exploring Selena Gomez’s summer single “Fetish”

Looking for a summer song to obsess over? Selena Gomez has just released her steamy new single, “Fetish,” featuring rapper Gucci Mane.

Earlier this season, Gomez tantalized us with a teaser of the tune at the end of her “Bad Liar” music video, the first release since her hiatus after the Revival era. So was her newest single worth the wait? Yes, yes it was.

“Fetish” is every bit as sexy as the title suggests. With lyrics about origami sexual positions, “Fetish” is one of the quirkiest songs of Selena Gomez’s career. Even more so than Talking Heads sampling “Bad Liar.”

The scandalous song starts with an almost rushed “Take it or leave it/But I know you won’t leave it cause I know that you need it,” depicting a lover who can’t keep himself from the thing he craves most. The instrumental is light and airy as are the vocals.

The track comes alive once the instantly addictive chorus hits: “You got a fetish for my love/I push you out and you come right back,” Selena serenades over spooky synths. 

Even though the song is safe vocally, I still yearn for that special someone when listening to it. The eerie instrumentals transport me into a world of fantasies. Almost like a masquerade ball hosted by Chuck Bass. 

The creepy and off the wall video – on the other hand – resembles early episodes of Dexter. 

Starting in a 70’s-set suburban neighborhood, all appears well until Selena arrives at her home to find a crashed car casually perched on the lawn. It’s as if I’m watching a horror film unfold. 

Once she steps inside, you’re immersed into her world of fantasies…which include sticking her tongue in an eyelash curler, eating lipstick, and dancing in an icebox.

Now this may be a completely possessed side of Selena we aren’t usually graced with, but through the actions – which had me cringing in my seat – a deeper meaning starts to materialize.

Selena tries to eat glass or peaches and instantly spits then out, only to try once again. She’s mimicking the push and pull of the lyrics: “I push you out and you come right back.” No matter how much she wants to stop, this underlying inedible addiction effects her being.

Lyrically, Fetish steps away from her regular stance of desiring an individual. In her previous singles like “Hands to Myself,” she sings about that certain man who’s the “metaphorical gin and juice” she can’t get enough of. But in “Fetish,” she confidently proclaims that she knows she’s worth it, piling on the old adage: “If I were you I’d do me.”

Instrumentally, we’ve seen her transform from cheeky-pop to a more alternative route similarly mastered by Lana Del Rey.

My only complaint is Gucci Mane’s verse which almost feels like a marketing ploy. Though, that still doesn’t detach from the joy of hearing Selena transform into her new style.

With two solo albums under her own name, and three albums under Selena Gomez & The Scene, we have witnessed her ditch her Disney days and grow into a mature young woman. This couldn’t be more true with Fetish, where she successfully dabbles into a new, yet predictable sub-genre.