Selena Gomez is enjoying the fruits of her labour right now after releasing her latest album, Rare, a body of work that was years in the making.
So far, she's already had one song from the album, "Lose You to Love Me", reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and now she's eagerly waiting to see if the album itself will hit the top spot.
However, fans and critics alike have criticised Selena for buying her own album and pleading with fans to stream it as much as possible, with Selena herself even questioning if she was "desperate" for doing so.
Posting a video to Instagram recently, Selena could be seen in a car with three friends as they went to buy "as many albums as possible".
"Am I, like, kinda desperate for doing this?" Selena laughed at the end of the video. "I don't care. I don't care, because this album is so rare."
In a further bunch of videos posted to Selena's Instagram story on Thursday, she continued to ask fans to buy and stream her album, adding: "It's not about numbers for me, but I would love the most important album I've ever released to become number one."
According to Billboard, Selena is currently battling against rapper Roddy Ricch and his album Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial.
Now, people are criticising Selena over the videos, and it's sparked a whole lot of drama on Twitter.
So selena is buying her own album to get that damned first spot? She looks so desperate, i can't.
The main issue concerned ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber, who was involved in a similar drama last week when he begged fans to buy his new song "Yummy" and was dragged as a result.
stan twitter dragged justin for promoting yummy but selena is out here buying copies of her own album to get it to #1...I HAVE TO LAUGH
I can't believe Selena Gomez's fans crucified Justin Bieber for wanting Yummy to go #1 only for her to go to Best Buy, Target, AND Walmart, buying the album herself and begging her fans to stream it.
Some just didn't understand why both Selena and Justin needed to beg fans to buy their music when they're already accomplished in the first place.
What is going on with Selena and Bieber and why are they this desperate for a #1?!?! They’re already accomplished?? Like they have nothing to prove? WTF IS THIS NEW PHENOMENON OF BIG ARTISTS BEGGING FOR A #1 😭💀 https://t.co/dduP8cVI9a
Why Selena and jb stans going back in forth trying to prove who’s more desperate. Both of them are desperate and both of them wanted a number 1 and both got blocked by the same person. If y’all put your energy into streaming your favs they’d get the top spots lord have mercy
Others tried to defend Selena, pointing out that artists buying their own albums is actually pretty common.
Celebrities buying their own albums during release week is normal. So many of them do it, so don't attack Selena it's not like she's buying a thousand or something
yall going to hate every other artist that buys their own album or is it only okay to attack selena? literally hypocrites
One fan even added that Selena had "every right" to promote her album and that she deserved to hit the top spot.
I DON’T CARE WHAT ANYONE HAS TO SAY. SELENA HAS EVERY RIGHT TO PROMOTE HER ALBUM. IT’S HER MOST HONEST ALBUM AND SHE DESERVES TO GO #1. PERIOD. #Rare #StreamRare
I guess we'll just have to wait and see who comes out on top when Billboard reveals the album chart next week.
