Can you smell it? That intoxicating blend of corporate America, young Hollywood and mall food courts wafting around town today -- that's from one Selena Gomez, who is indeed back home in Dallas today, promoting the two fairly major projects on her immediate horizon, her FOX studio film called Monte Carlo (due out July 1) and her third full-length for Disney's Hollywood called When The Sun Goes Down (due out June 28).
Maybe you saw her on TV today -- she's appeared on , hitting the entire local broadcast circuit. Or maybe you heard her on the radio with Kidd Kraddick. Or maybe you ran into her at the mall yesterday.
Point is, the girl's got a lot on her plate, and she's telling everyone she can about it. She's already been on Dancing With the Stars, The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, too." Pretty soon, you can catch her on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America and Today.
Girl's putting in time, and the cover story in the current issue of Billboard focusing on why makes for a pretty fascinating read -- not to mention a fine pairing with our own 2008 cover story on Gomez's BFF, Colleyville's Demi Lovato, whose star has fallen somewhat in the wake of her recent rehab stint.
Gomez, meanwhile, couldn't be hotter. The Billboard story breaks down the numbers that matter -- her social media stats. Right now, Gomez is Disney's No.1 commodity on that front; she has more Facebook "likes" and more Twitter followers than anyone else on the roster -- including powerhouses like Lovato, Miley Cyrus or even the Jonas Brothers. And that's before we even mention the fact that she's dating the Internet equivalent of gold, Justin Bieber.
Far as Disney's concerned, all this could mean big sales numbers for the new album -- more than the 778,000 units moved by her debut, more than the 609,000 albums sold for the sophomore effort, and a healthy sampling of songs sold to throw on top of her current total of 7 million. Already, "Who Says," the lead single off of When The Sun Goes Down and the song used in the Monte Carlo trailer, has been purchased 844,000 times and been watched over 43 million times on YouTube.
And the key to all this success, according to Hollywood Records head Abbey Konowitch, is all in that social media prowess.
"The key to Facebook is 'like' and Selena has the highest likability of any artist we have ever worked with. It crosses over into all of her business," Konowitch says. "It's a gift. And she has it at a level that is remarkable."Interesting stuff, for sure. Give the whole article a read right here.
