Selena Gomez may not be imminently releasing a new album this fall, but the singer joined forces with Chris Martin and Coldplay to create “Let Somebody Go,” a raw, emotional ballad on heartbreak and losing a partner. The song appears on Coldplay's new album Music of the Spheres, which was just dropped today. Gomez didn't write the song about her own heartbreak; in fact, she was tapped to be a female vocalist on it after the song was already written.
As Martin explained to Apple Music, per Genius, the track is “just a really lovely ballad. And quite early on we realized it needed a female counterpart to the vocal.” He added, “And we were very grateful that when we asked Selena to sing on it, she loved the song and was happy to do so. Collaborations in general are something that we’ve done more of recently. We never really used to do it before. When we were younger, we kind of locked ourselves in a room and felt we had to prove everything ourselves. But I think as time has gone on, it’s become more interesting for us to work with other people from different parts of the world, different genres. It just adds color and character to the music.”
Martin had high praise on Gomez and her vocals. He told Ryan Seacrest during his interview on On Air this week, "First of all, Selena’s personality inside, she’s just an angel. I’ve got so much love and respect for her.…She’s such a good, kind person...and then her voice for me is in like what I would call ‘the Rihanna bag’ which are voices that are gifts to humanity.”
Gomez, of course, is currently single with her last public heartbreak years behind her. As she explained to The Newsette last November, “None of what I’m doing now would have stemmed from the mindset I had before. My best stuff is happening now. And then the greatest thing ever in my music was ‘Lose You to Love Me’ [Gomez's breakup song believed to be about Justin Bieber]…I remember I had a moment where I couldn’t believe it, because the first and second day, the reactions were crazy, and I remember I smiled and I was like, ‘That’s why it’s worth it. All of these years of confusion and being in love, and all of this stuff…and it was finally a clean slate.’ And it wasn’t even because everyone liked it; it was just a realization of why I went through everything I went through.” Martin, for his part, has been in a private, years-long relationship with Dakota Johnson.
But the lyrics touch on the deep feeling everyone who has gone through a breakup understands. Listen to the song and take in each verse below:
Intro: Chris Martin
(Let somebody, let somebody go)
Verse 1: Chris, Will Champion
We had a kind of love
I thought that it would never end
Oh my lover, oh my other, oh my friend
We talked around in circles and
We talked around and then
I loved you to the moon and back again
You gave everything this golden glow
Now turn off all the stars, 'cause this I know
That it hurts like so
To let somebody go
Verse 2: Selena Gomez, Will, Chris
All the storms we weathered
Everything that we went through
Now without you, what on earth am I to do?
When I called the mathematicians and
I asked them to explain
They said love is only equal to the pain
And when everything was going wrong
You could turn my sorrow into song
Oh, it hurts like so
To let somebody go
To let somebody go
Oh, oh-oh
Oh, oh-oh
(Let somebody, let somebody go)
Chorus: Chris, Selena
Oh, oh-oh, (oh) when you love somebody (oh)
When you love somebody (oh)
Got to let somebody know
Oh, oh-oh, (oh) when you love somebody (oh)
When you love somebody (oh)
Got to let somebody know
So, when you love somebody
When you love somebody
Then it hurts like so
To let somebody go
It hurts like so
To let somebody go
Outro: Chris
But you're still with me now, I know
(Let somebody, let somebody go)
Oh (Let somebody, let somebody go)
But you're still with me now, I know
