"Back To You" is the lead single from the soundtrack of the second season of 13 Reasons Why and the seventeenth track from the Target edition of Selena Gomez's third studio album, Rare. It was released on May 10, 2018, through Interscope Records.
Audio[]
Spotify[]
Spotify (Remixes)[]
Background[]
It was written by Amy Allen, Gomez, Micah Premnath, Diederik Van Elsas and Parrish Warrington, while the production was handled by Trackside and Ian Kirkparick. Commercially, the song has reached the top 10 in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and Slovakia; as well as the top 20 in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In the United States, the song became Gomez's 15th consecutive top 40 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, the longest active run of any artist.
People started to assume Gomez was releasing new music after "Back To You" was registered on ASCAP. Gomez first announced the song through her Instagram account. It is rumored that if the song does well it could be the lead single for Rare.
Release[]
Gomez confirmed the release through social media on May 1, as well as its inclusion on the soundtrack of the second season of the Netflix's original series 13 Reasons Why, in which she takes part as an executive producer. The song premiered on May 10 in Zane Lowe's Apple Music radio show Beats 1 as the release day's "World Record". She was also interviewed by Lowe and confirmed that her third solo studio album was being completed.
Composition[]
The song was written by Amy Allen, Selena Gomez, Micah Premnath, Diederik Van Elsas and Parrish Warrington. The production was handled by Trackside and Ian Kirkpatrick, the latter also working on Gomez's previous single "Bad Liar". The track has been described as an emotional acoustic midtempo with country influences, being also called a "dance-pop anthem" and an electropop ballad. Gomez said that it was a "very special record" and that she wanted it to be "a beautiful message in a really complicated way but really fun".
Music Video[]
The official music video was directed by Scott Cudmore. The imagery for the music video is inspired from the 1965 French New Wave film Pierrot le Fou. The music video takes place in a much more fantastical world. It starts with Gomez, dressed in a vintage feather-trimmed green sequined high-neck dress, locking eyes with a sharply suited man (Andrey Kupchenko), and they hop into a convertible and end up frolicking in a bucolic pasture. Gomez wears an ensemble fit for the French countryside: a vintage white skirt and a sleeveless orange-and-yellow crop top. and take Gomez’s twist on iconic ’60s French-girl style as some summer style inspiration.
Nevertheless, Gomez's video, is saturated with Godard's quintessential filmmaking quirks: fragmented editing; characters breaking the fourth wall; melodramatic dialogue; a garish, primary color-focused palette; and cartoonish neorealism. Cinemaphiles will immediately notice parallels, as the music video's opening visual directly mirrors the famous party scene in "Pierrot le Fou," both doused in deep, ever-changing colors. The inane dialogue from side characters serves to highlight the shallow, bourgeois lifestyle that Pierrot wants to escape from. They burn a car. They fall in and out of love.
Gallery[]
Behind the scenes[]
Lyrics[]
Took you like a shot
Thought that I could chase you with the cold evening
Let a couple years water down how I'm feeling about you
(feeling about you)
And every time we talk
Every single word builds up to this moment
And I gotta convince myself I don't want it
Even though I do
(even though I do)
You could break my heart in two
But when it heals, it beats for you
I know it's forward but it's true
I wanna hold you when I'm not supposed to
When I'm lying close to someone else
You're stuck in my head and I can't get you out of it
If I could do it all again
I know I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
We never got it right
Playing and replaying old conversations
Overthinking every word and I hate it
'cause it's not me ('cause it's not me)
And what's the point in hiding
And everybody knows we got unfinished business
And I regret it if I didn't say
This isn't what it could be
(isn't what it could be)
You could break my heart in two
But when it heals, it beats for you
I know it's forward but it's true
I wanna hold you when I'm not supposed to
When I'm lying close to someone else
You're stuck in my head and I can't get you out of it
If I could do it all again
I know I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
I'd go back to you
I'd go back to you
What was there wasn't sure
But I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
You can break my heart in two
But when it heals, it beats for you
I know it's forward but it's true
Won't lie, I'd go back to you
You know, my thoughts are running loose
It's just a thing you make me do
And I could fight, but what's the use
I know I'd go back to you
I wanna hold you when I'm not supposed to
When I'm lying close to someone else
You're stuck in my head and I can't get you out of it
If I could do it all again
I know I'd go back to you
I'd go back to you
I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
I'd go back to you
I'd go back to you
I know I'd go back to you
(go back to you, go back to you)
(go back to you, go back to you)
(go back to you, go back to you)
| Rare | |
|---|---|
| January 10, 2020 • Interscope Records | |
| Songs | |
| Released | A Sweeter Place • Back To You • Bad Liar • Boyfriend • Crowded Room • Cut You Off • Dance Again • Feel Me • Fetish • Fun • It Ain't Me • Kinda Crazy • Let Me Get Me • Look At Her Now • Lose You to Love Me • People You Know • Rare • Ring • She • Souvenir • Vulnerable • Wolves |
| Unreleased | Bad Guy • Bad News • Flawless • Grateful • Stained • That's Why I Love You • Higher Or Heaven • Yellow Roses • Praise On Someone Else (P.O.S.E.) • Love's Not Over • I Can’t Change For You • Feels So Real • Unstoppable |
| Artists | |
| 6LACK • Gucci Mane • Kid Cudi • Kygo • Marshmello • Selena Gomez | |