The Heart Wants What It Wants

The Heart Wants What It Wants
Featured Artist(s)	Selena Gomez
Album	For You
Released	November 6, 2014
Recorded	2014
Genre	Pop, R&B
Format	Digital download
Length	3:47
Writer(s)	Selena Gomez, Antonina Armato, David Jost, Tim James
Producer(s)	Rock Mafia

"The Heart Wants What It Wants" is the lead single from Selena Gomez's first greatest hits album For You. A demo got leaked on June 23, 2017 by JC named "Give You Up" as they had the demo before they knew the name.

Music video

The music video for "The Heart Wants What It Wants" premiered on Selena Gomez's VEVO channel on YouTube on November 6, 2014 and received over nine million views in its first 24 hours. The music video was filmed in black and white and directed by Dawn Shadforth. Actor Shiloh Fernandez appears in the video as Gomez's love interest. According to Gomez, the video was filmed about a year before its release, but was postponed three times.

Selena Gomez - The Heart Wants What It Wants (Official Video)

Synopsis

Selena attends a party with her boyfriend. She is in love with him but he keeps hurting her. Seeing him hugging another woman upsets Selena. She decides to walk away but the guy stops her. Then we have some flashbacks of romantic moments between them that Selena brings to her mind and gets upset again, resulting in her getting up to leave again, overwhelmed from emotions. Her boyfriend doesn't try to stop her this time, just kisses her goodbye and keeps on partying. Then we see Selena leaving the building and walking in a parking lot: she seems lost and looks behind her, she wants her boyfriend to come after her and try to stop her because no matter what, ''the heart wants what it wants''

Critical reception

The song received critical acclaim for its lyrical content, production, vocals and new direction, compared to Gomez's previous efforts. Lucas Villa of AXS favorably compared "The Heart Wants What it Wants" to the music of Lana Del Rey for Gomez's use of "trip hop beats, guitar and distorted Emile Haynie-styled yelps" alongside her "darkest" lyrics yet. He further wrote that the song "stands as a heartbreaking revelation in her five-year-old songbook, one that's vulnerably beautiful and unapologetically honest." Tim Sendra of Allmusic highlighted the song and praised it by calling it "very adult and real-sounding" and adding that "she acquits herself well here too." Popology Now called this song "emotionally charged."The Huffington Post's Christopher Rosen deemed the song "a fairly good anthem for those going through heartbreak."

Idolator praised the song: "The Rock Mafia-produced gem shows the former teen queen in an entirely new light. There’s a vulnerability we haven’t seen before as Selena sings about the dark side of her very own fairytale with palpable honesty and conviction" and the editor called it the selling point of an album and added that if Selena follows this direction, many hits will be coming for her." The Times of India editor Kasmin Fernandes added that this song shows her in an "entirely new light." Renowned for Sound was also positive: "smooth dose of pop with a second-guessing love storyline." When reviewing single, Music Times concluded: "Emotional song channels Justin Bieber drama but is still stunning on its own."

Commercial performance

The same day of its release, "The Heart Wants What It Wants" reached number two on the US iTunes; single "Ready to Run" One Direction avoided its arrival at first place. Mediabase reported that on its first day the single received a radio audience of over 10 million, making the means to compare its radio debut with the "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus, who debuted with four million less. Also in its debut it reached number one on the Billboard Twitter Real-Time list, which tracks the most mentioned and shared on Twitter songs.

During its first week, "The Heart Wants What It Wants" sold 103,000 digital copies in the United States, which allowed it to debut at number six in the list Digital Songs. These sales gave Gomez her second best debut on the list, after "Who Says" with her band Selena Gomez & the Scene, which debuted with 116,000 copies. The Billboard Hot 100 list, which combines the single's digital sales, plus its performance on the radio and streaming, debuted at number twenty-five; the best entry of the week. In Streaming Songs it debuted at number thirty-seven because it received 3.1 million streams. Thanks to her performance at theAmerican Music Awards on November 23, 2014, Gomez got her second top 10 in Billboard Hot 100, and it reached number six, the same position obtained by "Come & Get It" in May 2013. The week after its introduction, the song sold 136,000 copies and reached number five on Digital Songs, since it had a 98% increase in downloads compared to the previous week. Simultaneously, it reached the fifth position in Streaming Songs and debuted at number forty-two on Radio Songs. In the latter, managed to position itself as her second top ten, again behind "Come & Get It". In the counting of Pop Songs, based on the level of airplay that songs receive on pop radio stations in the United States, "The Heart Wants What It Wants" became Gomez's third top 10 single in her solo career and her third consecutive single that make it to the first ten. On the other hand, in late January 2015, the song debuted on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, marking the most popular songs in the dance clubs of the United States. As of July 2015, the single has sold 1.3 million copies in the United States.

In Canada it also achieved the best debut in its first week, at number nine. This automatically turned "The Heart Wants What It Wants" Gomez's third top 10 in the country and her second best positioned single after "Come & Get It" which peaked at number six followed by "Love You like a Love Song", which reached the tenth position. Weeks later "The Heart Wants What It Wants" equaled the position of "Come & Get It" in the Canadian territory.

Awards and nominations

"The Heart Wants What It Wants" won the award for Best Breakup Song at the 2015 Radio Disney Music Awards. It also received a nomination for Choice Break-Up Song at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards.

Lyrics

You got me sippin' on something
I can't compare to nothing
I've ever known, I'm hoping
That after this fever I'll survive
I know I'm acting a bit crazy
Strung out, a little bit hazy
Hand over heart, I'm praying
That I'm gonna make it out alive

The bed's getting cold and you're not here
The future that we hold is so unclear
But I'm not alive until you call
And I'll bet the odds against it all
Save your advice 'cause I won't hear
You might be right but I don't care
There's a million reasons why I should give you up
But the heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants

You got me scattered in pieces
Shining like stars and screaming
Lighting me up like Venus
But then you disappear and make me wait
And every second's like torture
Heroin drip, no more so
Finding a way to let go
Baby, baby, no, I can't escape

The bed's getting cold and you're not here
The future that we hold is so unclear
But I'm not alive until you call
And I'll bet the odds against it all
Save your advice 'cause I won't hear
You might be right but I don't care
There's a million reasons why I should give you up
But the heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants

This is a modern fairytale
No happy endings
No wind in our sails
But I can't imagine a life without
Breathless moments
Breaking me down, down, down, down

The bed's getting cold and you're not here
The future that we hold is so unclear
But I'm not alive until you call
And I'll bet the odds against it all
Save your advice 'cause I won't hear
You might be right but I don't care
There's a million reasons why I should give you up
But the heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants
The heart wants what it wants

The heart wants what it wants, baby
It wants what it wants, baby
It wants what it wants
It wants what it wants

Live performance

• Selena performed the song live for the first time at the 2014 American Music Awards.

Selena Gomez - Heart Wants What It Wants (2014 American Music Awards)