I Said I Love You First is a collaborative studio album by American singer Selena Gomez and American record producer Benny Blanco. It is Gomez's fourth studio album and Blanco's second. Following their respective studio albums "Rare" (2020) and "Friends Keep Secrets" (2018), it was released on March 21, 2025, through SMG Music LLC, Friends Keep Secrets, and Interscope Records. 
The album features guest appearances from Gracie Abrams, the Marías, Tainy, and J Balvin, with additional contributions from Charli XCX and Finneas. "I Said I Love You First" achieved the biggest first-week album sales for Gomez and Blanco's careers in the United States, debuting at number-two on the "Billboard" 200. It become the first album by a real-life couple to top the Vinyl Albums chart in history. Internationally, the album has charted within the top-10 in 15 counties. It received generally favorable reviews from critics. "Rolling Stone" named the album as one of the best albums of 2025 so far.
Background.
The first time Gomez and Blanco collaborated in the studio was for the former's second solo studio album, "Revival". For the album, Blanco has production credits on the singles "Kill Em with Kindness" and "Same Old Love". The pair then returned to the studio to record the collaborative single "I Can't Get Enough" with Tainy and J Balvin, which was released in February 2019. Later, Blanco also participated in the creation of Gomez's standalone single "Single Soon", which was released in August 2023.
In December 2023, Gomez officially confirmed her relationship with Blanco, and in December 2024, the couple officially announced their engagement. In October 2024, Gomez stated that she had no date in mind for her next album's release, telling "Variety" "I currently don't have anything, but I will say music is going to always be a part of me," and, "I don't think any movements are happening right now, but it will always be in my life." Gomez later affirmed "Music isn't going away," and "I just set it down for a second."
On January 17, 2025, Blanco shared a short clip on TikTok responding to a fan who wrote him, "Benny please make some new songs for our queen."
The clip showed Gomez recording music in her home studio. Then on January 23, 2025, Gomez shared a video on her social media while working on new music in her home recording studio. After a number of speculations, on February 13, Gomez announced the release of the album on March 21 and released a surprise promotional single "Scared of Loving You" for Valentine's Day. Many different signed, regular and limited CD, LP and 12-inch vinyls of the album were available for pre-order, along with pre-saving on streaming platforms.
Composition and release.
Gomez announced her engagement to Blanco on December 11, 2024. Two months later, she revealed they worked on a collaborative studio album, writing in an Instagram post: "my NEW album "I Said I Love You First" with my best friend @itsbennyblanco, is out on 3/21". According to a press release, the album will celebrate "the pair's love story" and "chronicles their entire story—before they met, falling in love and looking to what the future holds".
"I Said I Love You First" is a pop alt-pop, and bedroom pop album that also includes elements of synth-pop, pop rock, folk-pop, Latin pop and hyperpop. It follows a narrative starting with the end of a failed relationship to the meeting between Gomez and Blanco to "the couple's present-day happiness". Its first track is a voice recording of a speech given by Gomez to the cast and crew of "Wizards of Waverly Place".
As part of the album's extended rollout, Gomez made the previously unreleased 2016 track "Stained", available for digital download via her official website on March 22, 2025. Two days later, on March 24, a new special track titled "Talk" was released as a digital exclusive; the song had previously been featured in an Apple commercial to promote the iPhone 16e and interpolates Cake's "Never There". Gomez released the "Seven Heavens Version" of the album for digital download on March 25, featuring the song "That's When I'll Care". The following day, she released the "Call Me When You Break Up Special Edition", which included the acoustic and extended versions of "Call Me When You Break Up". She further released two digital limited editions, with live from Vevo recordings of "Scared of Loving You" and "How Does It Feel to Be Forgotten" included respectively. On April 30, she announced the deluxe version of the album, titled "I Said I Love You First... and You Said It Back", to be released on May 2.
Promotion.
Gomez and Blanco revealed the track list of their upcoming album, "I Said I Love You First" on March 4. On March 19, Gomez and Blanco appeared on Spotify's "Countdown To" series to talk about the creation of the album. "Hot Ones", a YouTube series, released an episode featuring an interview with Blanco and Gomez on March 20. An interview on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" was released on March 21 to promote the album.
Singles.
On February 13, 2025, "Scared of Loving You" was surprised released for Valentine's Day and was released as the album's first promotional single, alongside an official lyric video. It is an upbeat ballad written with Finneas O'Connell. The lead single, "Call Me When You Break Up", was released the following week on February 20, 2025. The song is a collaboration with American singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams. "Sunset Blvd" was released as the second single on March 14, 2025, with a music video. "Younger and Hotter Than Me" was released as the third single, along with the album's release.
Critical reception.
 Martina Rebecca Inchingolo of the Associated Press complimented "I Said I Love You First" for its inclusion of guest artists and its experimentation with different genres. Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" said that Gomez "at long last adds a compelling new entry to her catalog", while Dakota West Foss of "Sputnikmusic" called it her "strongest collection of songs to date". Robin Murray of "Clash" said the album surpassed expectations, calling it "a genuine thrill" and praising Blanco's "world-building capabilities". Both Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" and Georgia Evans of "NME" criticized the album's lack of a clear identity, with the former finding the nature of its songs unmemorable. Rob Sheffieldd of "Rolling Stone" praised the album for its diversity and versatility in genres and styles, describing the album as: "a valentine that delivers exactly what it promises—a pop icon and a superstar producer celebrating a real-life romance that we all can root for.""Rolling Stone" and "Complex" named the album as one of the best album of 2025 so far.
Commercial performance.
In the United States, "I Said I Love You First" debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200, with first-week sales of 120,000 album-equivalent units, consisting of 71,000 pure album sales and 64.04 million on-demand streams, making both Blanco and Gomez's highest first-week sales by units overall, as well as Gomez's seventh top-ten effort on the chart and Blanco's first. The album became top-selling pure sales album of the week, topping both the Top Album Sales and Top Vinyl Albums charts, it become the first album by a real-life couple to top the Vinyl Albums chart in history, as well as making Gomez's fourth consecutive number-one album on the charts and Blanco's first. In the same week, four songs from the album entered the "Billboard" Hot 100: "Call Me When You Break Up" (46), "Ojos Tristes" (56), "How Does It Feel to Be Forgotten" (71) and "Sunset Blvd" (97).
Internationally, the album debuted in the top-ten in 15 countries, including number four in the United Kingdom, making the second top-five album for Gomez and the first for Blanco.
Track listing.
Notes
Personnel.
Credits adapted from album liner notes.