THE RUNDOWNIn March 2026, Selena Gomez confirmed Taylor Swift’s evermore song “dorothea” was about her.When it came out in 2020, many fans theorized Swift’s longtime friend was her muse for the track.Swift discussed the inspiration for the song in her album note then, but fans still saw traces of Gomez in the lyrics.Most of the songs from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album evermore are about characters she created, with “long story short” being the only fully fact-based song about her life and relationship with then-partner Joe Alwyn. But years later, her longtime friend Selena Gomez confirmed that “dorothea” really was about her.On the March 3, 2026 episode of Gomez’s husband Benny Blanco’s podcast Friends Keep Secrets, she discussed connecting with Swift’s music on a deeper level, adding, “Well, ‘dorothea’ is about me, one of her songs. And I feel like a lot of moments—huge moments that were self-defining from relationships to family to love to hate, all of it in between, we were figuring it out because I was 15 and she was 18, and we didn’t really know what was going on. And so we’ve never seen each other any differently. So when I listen to it, I’m so impressed how it’s eloquently put.”When the song initially came out, several fans theorized that “dorothea” was about Gomez.One fan pointed out in a detailed Twitter thread that Gomez’s favorite childhood movie is The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy is the main character, maybe the name inspiration for Dorothea), she once played a character named Dot, Gomez is famous and has her Rare Beauty makeup line (“you’rе a queen sellin’ dreams, sellin’ makeup, and magazines”), and her mother put her into child beauty pageants (“Your mom and her pageant schemes”), among other things.But minutes after the album came out in 2020, Swift touched on the inspiration for “dorothea” in a note, making it clear Dorothea was a fictional character. (evermore, as a whole, is a blend of fact and fiction.)As Swift wrote, she created “17 tales, some of which are mirrored or intersecting with one another,” adding that “dorothea” is about “Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams—and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame.” (Swift even gave Dorothea a small town to be from: Tupelo, Mississippi. Gomez is from Grand Prairie, Texas.) In a YouTube comment, Swift added that in evermore, "thematically, we still explored mythology, stories, and secrets."View full post on XSwift also hinted on YouTube at the time that Dorothea was connected to folklore’s Betty, James, and Inez. (Those three fictional characters were named after Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s daughters.)View full post on XTake a look at the song's lyrics, via Genius, and see how Gomez influenced the track. You can listen to the song below, too:View full post on YouTubeVerse 1Hey, Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me?When we were younger down in the parkHoney, making a lark of the miseryYou got shiny friends since you left townA tiny screen's the only place I see you nowAnd I got nothing but well-wishes for yaPre-ChorusOoh, this place is the same as it ever wasOoh, but you don't like it that wayChorusIt's never too late to come back to my sideThe stars in your eyes shined brighter in TupeloAnd if you're ever tired of bеing known for who you knowYou know, you'll always know me, Dorothea (Uh-uh)Dorothea (Ah-ah)Post-ChorusOoh, you'rе a queen sellin' dreams, sellin' makeup and magazinesOoh, from you I'd buy anythingVerse 2Hey, Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me?When it was calmer, skipping the prom just to piss off your mom and her pageant schemesAnd damn, Dorothea, they all wanna be yaBut are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? Well...Pre-ChorusOoh, I guess I'll never knowOoh, and you'll go on with the showChorusBut it's never too late to come back to my sideThe stars in your eyes shined brighter in TupeloAnd if you're ever tired of being known for who you knowYou know, you'll always know me, Dorothea (Uh-uh)Dorothea (Ah-ah)OutroOoh, oohOoh-woo-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-oohOoh, oohOoh-woo-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-oohDorothea (Ah-ah-ah)Ah-ahOoh