Selena Gomez stages musical, personal 'Revival' 

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Selena Gomez stages musical, personal \'Revival\'

The onetime Disney starlet moves past heartbreak and scrutiny on a grown-up new album.

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Selena Gomez stages musical, personal 'Revival'

Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY 1:16 p.m. EDT October 4, 2015

Selena Gomez, 23, releases her new album 'Revival' on Friday.

Early last year, the former Disney Channel star was caught in a maelstrom of bad press. Rumors about her canceled tour and "secret" rehab stint ran amok on gossip sites, as she fended off incessant questions about her on-and-off boyfriend Justin Bieber (himself, the center of a media meltdown after a DUI arrest in January 2014).

"I did reach a point where I was very uncomfortable with the circumstances," Gomez, 23, says. "Everybody has that moment in their life where something needs to change and I needed something different." So, she moved out of her parents\' house; hired a new management team; and signed to a new label, Interscope Records, which will release her first album in two years,

The album was born from a conversation with Interscope CEO John Janick last fall. "I was crying in his office, like, \'I don\'t know if I can do this, I\'m nervous,\' " Gomez says. She had just released somber Top 10 single

on her last label, Hollywood Records, which she performed on the American Music Awards in November as her teary-eyed friend Taylor Swift and church pastor looked on.

Gomez was emotional singing 'The Heart Wants What It Wants' at the AMAs last fall.

The reaction to the song "was very kind, which was incredible, because it allowed me to go in the same direction toward this record," Gomez says. "Then I just went through hell and scrutiny in the press, which was really unfair and I felt like I wasn\'t being heard. That ultimately pushed me to be able to create an album that was personal and real and hopefully, by the grace of God, will be critically acclaimed in some aspect."

on-and-off this year, amid shooting upcoming movies with Paul Rudd (

), and taking time off to relax and regroup. Inspired by Christina Aguilera\'s 2002 album

in favor of electronic, R&B flavor. Fans got a taste of the new sound on sultry, slowed-down first single

featuring rapper A$AP Rocky, which topped USA TODAY\'s Top 40 airplay charts.

She also moves into a lower vocal register, revealing a smoky singing voice that\'s just above a whisper on new tracks such as

, a dance-y declaration about taking the high road and ignoring the haters.

Before, "I tried to push myself vocally to pretend that I could reach these notes, which I actually can\'t, which is fine," Gomez says. "I needed to discover what would separate me and make me \'me\' as an artist."

, "was a real pivotal moment." Recorded in just 45 minutes, "I felt so connected to it and so confident in where my voice was, so that\'s the whole base of the record."

Other new songs offer glimpses into Gomez\'s life. Angsty kiss-off

, co-written with Charli XCX, has already fueled speculation about its possible Bieber connection, as will the infectious but deceptively sad

, which she plans to release as a single at some point (Its chorus: "You don\'t know how to love me when you\'re sober / when the bottle\'s done, you pull me closer").

is a fun girls-night-out anthem, she says, while a Spanish guitar preludes

: one of two songs she recorded in Mexico that made the album.

It was during that time in Mexico she encountered the all-too-common body shaming from the tabloids, a first for her. Photographed on the beach flaunting a curvier, slightly heavier physique, Gomez was scrolling through Instagram one day when she spotted nasty criticisms of her weight.

"I had a moment and was like, \'Wait a minute? Is this just comments? Just, like, 12-year-olds mad at me because they hate me?\' " Gomez says. "Then I Googled, which I should never do, and just started sobbing. ... I was just so upset. It wasn\'t even just saying I\'m fat — they\'re also saying, \'She\'s a wreck, she\'s a mess,\' like, why is that where it goes to? What took it to that place? You don\'t even know me."

After about an hour, she snapped out of her funk and posted a picture of herself wearing a swimsuit on Instagram, with the caption, "I love being happy with me y\'all #theresmoretolove." "The next day, that\'s what all the headlines ended up becoming," Gomez says. "It was like, I\'m glad I didn\'t let them win. I\'m glad I didn\'t let them tear me apart and try to \'ignore it.\' But it was unfair, it was really disgusting. It sucked."

\'s cover art: a topless black-and-white shot of Gomez wearing high-waisted shorts and covering her breasts, calling to mind Aguilera\'s

"It\'s not very glamorous. I just wanted it to be beautiful and soft and raw," Gomez says. "After a year of going through all my ups and downs — and I\'m assuming they\'re going to continue to come my way — I feel great about myself, I feel really happy."

This past year especially, Gomez has harvested a fruitful support system of close friends, including her two roommates (who aren\'t in the industry) and longtime pal Swift, whose ever-expanding celebrity coterie includes singers, actresses and models (Gomez has gotten particularly close with Karlie Kloss, a former Victoria\'s Secret Angel). She starred alongside many of these women in Swift\'s blockbuster

music video, and excitedly stormed the MTV Video Music Awards stage with them in August when Swift won the video of the year Moonman.

With the help of these women, "I get inspired daily. I am who I surround myself with, so I have to be very careful," Gomez says. Having known Swift for seven years now, Gomez says she most admires the

singer\'s openness. "She\'s very much like, \'I don\'t know if I can trust this person, but I would love to invite them into my world.\' She\'s been burned a few times, as have I, but you want to be open, you want to love people, and now, ultimately, I\'ve created incredible girlfriends through that."

Gomez reacts to Swift's major 'Bad Blood' win at the MTV VMAs in August.

When it comes to her love life, Gomez declines to say whether she\'s heard from Bieber since releasing her new music. Gossip sites have recently linked her to ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas and

singer Charlie Puth, both relationships she has since denied, although she says she is dating now.

"I\'m kind of in my own world at the moment," Gomez says. "I meet lovely guys and I\'ve gone on dates, but it\'s not really (my focus). I\'ve done that! I\'m gonna wait a second."

Instead, her priority is to confidently forge ahead into her

era, which will include a tour next year and, she hopes, a

performance with Rocky. Asked to describe how she feels now, Gomez says she\'s "free." As for what hasn\'t changed since her teenage

"Not to sound cheesy," Gomez says. "Literally, I feel like this industry has the ability to make you really hate people. Just the people I have come into contact with in the press and stuff like that, it\'s really disappointing to see what society and fame has become. But my heart hasn\'t changed. I care about people. I would love to go to dinner with everybody and just hang out and talk, and I love my fans. My fans are the only thing that\'s been consistent in my life."

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