For pretty much my entire adult life, everyone has been obsessed with Selena Gomez’s dating life, and it’s always revolved around one person: Justin Bieber. Even during Selena’s relationship with The Weeknd or Justin’s current marriage to Hailey Baldwin Bieber, people just can’t stop wondering if Selena and Justin were meant to be, or if they still think about each other. But with some vague Instagram stories on Tuesday, Selena Gomez made it seem like she might finally be moving on for good.
On Monday night, Selena surprised fans when she came on stage during Julia Michaels’ concert in LA to perform their duet “Anxiety.” If you can’t quite place the name Julia Michaels, she’s best known for her 2017 song “Issues,” which your hometown radio station still probably plays every 10 minutes. Anyway, She and Selena sang their song together on Monday night, and quickly kissed when Selena left the stage. With no additional context, I wouldn’t have thought anything of this kiss, but we’ll get back to it in a minute.
On Tuesday afternoon, Selena posted a series of Instagram stories showing her and Julia getting matching tattoos, because that’s the kind of thing that celebrities do. The tattoos are small arrows on each of their hands that point to each other, and Selena said on her story that her arrow points to Julia “forever.” Damn.
And then, after the tattoo pictures, Selena posted a heavily-filtered photo of the moment that she and Julia kissed onstage. The kiss may have been super brief, but from this photo, you would never know that. Whatever the reality of their relationship is, to me, posting a photo like this is designed to make people talk. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture says that Selena Gomez and Julia Michaels are really into each other.
But are they into each other romantically, or just as friends?
Since posting these photos, most of the headlines about Selena and Julia have been something along the lines of “BFFs Get Matching Tattoos After Sharing A Kiss,” which is a little weird to me. Sure, we don’t know any history of Selena or Julia dating women (Julia dated Lauv for several months last year), but we live in a time when it’s not a novel concept to be sexually fluid. Just look at Miley and Kaitlynn, or Cara Delevingne and Ashley Benson. I don’t know if Selena and Julia are dating, but judging from these posts, it uh…seems like a possibility.
Another important piece of this puzzle is Julia and Selena’s professional relationship. It’s not new information that they’re friends with each other, but Julia is also a co-writer on many of Selena Gomez’s songs, going all the way back to 2013. She has writing credits on major hits like “Hands To Myself” and “Bad Liar,” and, most importantly, both of Selena Gomez’s new songs. And in case you didn’t read our coverage, both of those songs are most definitely about Justin Bieber. To write so much together, Julia and Selena definitely already had a close relationship, but these last two songs show that they have a clear emotional intimacy, even if not a physical one.
Today is Julia Michaels’ birthday, but she celebrated on Sunday night because she’s on tour right now. Selena was in attendance, and she posted an Instagram that really doesn’t do anything to dissuade dating rumors. Personally, the only thing that I’m captioning “my love, my heart and my soul” is a pic of like, a really good brunch, but Selena and Julia obviously have a special bond.
Julia commented back on Selena’s photo, and again, they’re not making it look like they’re not dating.
I don’t know if Selena Gomez and Julia Michaels are dating, but wouldn’t it be badass if Selena got her first number-one song with a record about her ex that she co-wrote with her new girlfriend? But either way, it’s good that Selena seems happy again, and has emotionally supportive people around her. I’m also a little confused why so many tabloids seem determined to just call them “BFFs” and steer clear of any dating rumors, unless they have information that we don’t. Maybe they’re dating, maybe they’re not, but they did just post a photo of them kissing on social media. Call me old-fashioned, but that usually means something is going on. I also feel pretty confident that if this was two men kissing, tabloids would be all over gay rumors and speculation, but that’s a different rant for a different day.
We’ll be watching for any more signs that they’re together, or confirmation that this really was just a classic BFF kiss. Let me know your thoughts on a potential Jul-ena coupling, because I think I’m really into it.
Images: selenagomez (3), juliamichaels / Instagram
