The term “dance music” may conjure visions of heaving clubs, packed festival tents and partying with abandon, and certainly these concepts are a substantial piece of the pie. But so too is the term reductive, a broad catch-all that does little to indicate the dizzying taxonomy of sounds and experiences contained within.

A complete culture unto itself, dance music is vast and contains multitudes. It can be hard or soft, joyful or melancholic, hedonistic or contemplative, big or spare. It’s both lusty and full of longing, joyful and angry, protest music disguised as a good time. It’s hard to think of a human emotion that doesn’t have a corresponding sound or song within the genre, or a type of person that wouldn’t find something to love within it all.

So it’s about dancing, yes, but it’s also about so much more than the party. Since its inception in the late ’60s and early ’70s — as new technology created the instruments that created the sounds that created the songs, that created the culture that pushed music and the world at large further into the future — dance music has been both underground refuge and mainstream juggernaut. It has pulled in bits and pieces from every other genre of music, generating sounds that reach around the world and through time itself. While its presence in pop culture and the major charts ebbs and flows, it’s always been happening just around the corner from ubiquity, if you know where to look.

Because of all this, the music on the list of all-time best dance songs will naturally be strange bedfellows — a group of tracks and artists who to the naked eye may not have much to do with each other, but which share the DNA connecting the genre’s five-plus decades of existence.

This week we’re rolling out the 100 best dance songs of all time, 20 per day, through Friday (March 28). See 100-41 below.

It’s been a decade since Zayn Malik left One Direction and on Tuesday night (March 25) during the singer’s show in Mexico City he did something he hasn’t done since then: he performed one of the group’s most beloved hits during a solo show.

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At his gig at Palacio De Los Deportes on the Stairway to the Sky tour — his first arena show as a solo act — Malik shocked fans when he played the 2014 1D single “Night Changes” from the group’s fourth studio album, Four. In fact, Malik opened the show with the song, with a Twitter user reporting that he told the surprised audience, “I haven’t sung this song in 10 years. That you, that was amazing, I almost cried.”

Check out a video of Malik performing the song, and the audience shouting along to every lyric, here.

The song written by the group with Jamie Scott, John Ryan and Julian Bunetta was the fourth single from Four and the last one released by the band to feature Malik before he announced he was leaving 1D on March 25, 2015. The video for the ballad opens with Malik seated at a restaurant singing, “Going out tonight, changes into something red/ Her mother doesn’t like that kind of dress/ Everything she never had, she’s showing off” during what looks like a date with an unseen girlfriend.

The track had a resurgence in late 2024 after the shocking death of former 1D member Liam Payne after a fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Oct. 16. In the week after his death, “Night Changes” — which ran up to No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014 — saw its U.S. streams spike 416% to 4.9 million, with the song re-entering both the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. (at No. 95) and the Billboard Global 200 (No. 117) for the week dated Oct. 26.

After rescheduling the tour after postponing it in the wake of Payne’s death, Malik kicked off the tour in November.

In 2023, Grammy-winning producer Daniel Nigro founded his independently-funded Amusement Records primarily as a home for a then-independent Chappell Roan to release the album they made together, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

Roan at the time had been recently dropped by her former label, but as Nigro told Billboard when announcing Amusement: “I was so in love with everything that we were doing. I believe in [Chappell] so much that I was like, ‘Do I want this added stress in my life? Is it worth it? Yes.’”

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And it sure was. Last August, almost one year after her debut album’s release, The Rise and Fall peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The following month, she scored her highest-charting Hot 100 hit with “Good Luck, Babe!” And this February, Roan won the Grammy for best new artist.

Now, on Wednesday (March 26), Universal Music Group and Nigro announced an expanded partnership with Amusement following the knockout success of Roan and building on the producer’s long-term creative relationship with superstar Olivia Rodrigo (who is signed to UMG label Geffen/Interscope). Going forward, Amusement will operate as a label venture within UMG, allowing new signees to partner with any of UMG’s labels.

“Daniel embodies the type of creative brilliance and entrepreneurial spirit that is at the heart of UMG,” UMG chairman and CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge, said in a statement. “I can’t wait to hear the culture shaping music and artists [he] will bring next to our global family.”

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Since Nigro founded Amusement, he and Roan have both celebrated new highs. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess spawned six Hot 100 hits, including the top 10 smash “Pink Pony Club.” Meanwhile, Nigro earned his second Grammy for producer of the year at the 2025 ceremony for his work with Roan, Rodrigo and the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. (His first win was for Rodrigo’s debut album Sour.)

“After 6 years of working almost exclusively with the various labels [and] artists under Universal, it made perfect sense to make the relationship more formal,” Nigro said in a statement. “I want Amusement Records to be a place where artists can feel comfortable growing and developing at their own pace but with all the real resources needed to thrive and succeed.”

“Also,” he added, “a place where I can have the freedom to help choose the right team each time for the artist. I know in my heart that the people at Universal understand this, and I am beyond excited about what’s to come.”

Keyshia Cole, Monica and SWV are the performing stars enlisted to headline Femme It Forward’s first-ever cruise, Billboard can exclusively reveal. Presented in association with Sixthman and Vibee, Femmeland at Sea will sail from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas between Feb. 20-23, 2026.

Femme It Forward’s voyage aboard the Norwegian Pearl also marks the female-led music and entertainment firm’s transition into a 100% woman- and Black-owned company after a five-year partnership with Live Nation.

Femme It Forward president/CEO Heather Lowery, who founded the firm in 2019, tells Billboard, “I’ve always fought to have more equity in a company I’ve worked so hard to build. Now Femme It Forward is 100% woman-owned and Black- owned. I’m so excited! It feels like the beginning again, but this time I’m starting from a different place. 

“Live Nation was a great partner that allowed for a lot of business as well as personal growth,” continues Lowery, a Billboard Women in Music 2025 honoree. “They’ve provided me with a lot of resources for me to continue building Femme It Forward independent of the partnership. I’m super grateful for it all. We’re celebrating our five-year anniversary and there’s a lot of symbolism in the number five representing freedom, change, adventure and adaptability. I’m stepping into this next phase with open arms.”

In addition to the aforementioned live performances, Femmeland at Sea will also offer uniquely curated activities, live podcast recordings, parties, workshops/panels, mentorship labs, wine tastings and karaoke. The popular podcasts being featured include Keep It Positive Sweetie, hosted by Crystal Renee Hayslett, and Let’s Try This Again with B. Simone. Among the cruise’s additional activities will be wellness sessions helmed by WalkGood LA, Pretty Vee, Pretty Girls Sweat and Morning Mindset with Tai. Femme It Forward will also present its own branded activities such as Femme Salon and Femme Mentorship, with the latter hosted by mentors from the company’s Next Gem Femme and MUSE initiatives. Also on the schedule: Kirk Franklin’s Sunday School and #MusicSermon LIVE.

In the press release announcing the inaugural sailing, Lowery states in part that the cruise is “a vision I’ve had since our launch in 2020. I have always been bold about what Femme It Forward stands for and the experiences we create with women at the center. And despite the current optics and everything around us demanding we shrink, we will continue to do more — create more opportunities, make space for more representation and curate more experiences that amplify the voices of women everywhere.”

In turn, Femme It Forward will continue to present its various other events inaugurated over the last five years such as the annual Give Her FlowHERS Gala, the Femme It Forward High Tea and the My Sister’s Keeper Summit honoring artists and executives in music and entertainment. Future plans for its mentorship program include launching global chapters in South Africa and Europe.

Femmeland at Sea’s first round pre-sale sign-ups are available now through April 1 at 11:59 pm (ET). Final round pre-sale sign-ups will conclude on April 9 at 11:59 pm (ET). Public on-sales begin April 11 at 2:00 pm (ET), exclusively here.

Lucy Dacus has some mixed feelings about her newly minted public profile. “My dream is that I could play huge shows where [the crowd] knows every word,” she says, “we can connect after the show — and then I can wipe everyone’s mind of myself once they leave.”

The lack of Men in Black-esque technology notwithstanding, it’s easy to see why Dacus may feel that way. After spending the majority of her career as a cult artist with a tight-knit fan base in the indie scene, the singer-songwriter broke big alongside her friends Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker with The Record in 2023. Their supergroup, boygenius, sold out arenas, led Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart while also earning a top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 and dominated the rock categories at the 2024 Grammys, winning three awards.

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As she prepares her first solo release since the band’s breakthrough, Dacus, 29, still struggles with her shift from underground phenom to rock headliner. “Honestly, I don’t like being culturally relevant,” she says with a giggle. “I don’t like being somebody where people think they need to have a ‘take,’ in either direction.”

Yet even in that discomfort, Dacus exudes a confidence that feels new for her. Forever Is a Feeling, her fourth studio album (out March 28 on Geffen Records), takes the sound that Dacus has painstakingly crafted over the last decade and broadens it as her most lush collection to date.

Going into the creation of Forever Is a Feeling, Dacus says she “knew the scope was going to be different” for this album. That process included honing what she wanted to sing about. Whereas her past albums confronted loss and childhood trauma, the new set focuses almost entirely on romance. The first proper track off the album, “Big Deal,” finds Dacus reminding a doomed lover just how important they are; “Talk” traces the shifting dynamics of a relationship to its near end; and album closer “Lost Time” is one of the boldest love songs of her career, on which she declares, “I notice everything about you.”

Lucy Dacus photographed on March 5, 2025 in New York.

That line also encapsulates a key part of the singer’s songwriting process: Since she broke onto the scene with 2016’s No Burden, Dacus has always thrived at transforming specificity into universal lyrics. “Once you focus on one thing and one person, it actually recontextualizes everything else, and you realize that every detail is its own universe,” says Dacus, who recently revealed that she and her boygenius bandmate Julien Baker are in a relationship. She then quotes a line she read in one of Susan Sontag’s journals: “Love is noticing.”

With Forever Is a Feeling marking Dacus’ major-label debut on Geffen, the singer’s new music is striking a chord with mainstream listeners. “Ankles,” the project’s exhilarating lead single, earned Dacus her first solo entries on the Adult Alternative Airplay and Rock & Alternative Airplay charts. “She writes songs that are potent and timely but will endure for years to come,” says Matt Morris, executive vp of A&R at Interscope Geffen A&M. “The success of ‘Ankles’ at radio is a very deserved accomplishment for an artist who has already been so influential and continues to break new ground with this album.”

The set also finds Dacus continuing to evolve as a producer, after she recently helmed singer-songwriter Jasmine.4.t’s debut, You Are the Morning, alongside her boygenius bandmates. “A lot of [producing Jasmine’s album] was about advocating when it comes to being less experienced in the studio,” she explains. “It’s about helping develop a language and asking folks, ‘What do you want? Here’s how to say it.’ I want to continue to help hold the emotional space of saying, ‘Do us the favor of being a control freak.’ ”

Lucy Dacus photographed on March 5, 2025 in New York.

That experience speaks to Dacus’ larger goal of late: using her newfound platform to create good. Shortly after the Trump administration began rolling out its ­anti-trans policy agenda, Dacus took to her social media and called for any of her trans fans hosting fundraisers for gender-affirming surgeries to share their campaigns so that she could donate $10,000 in $500 increments to those in need of help.

There’s a reason Dacus made that pledge in public. “Ten thousand dollars is not that much in the grand scheme of things,” she says. “But I wanted there to be a list of links on my profile so that if anybody else wanted to do what I was doing, then they could scroll through and donate as well. If other people are jumping in, then that can really matter.”

It’s that sense of renewed purpose that shows how far Dacus has come as a leading voice in rock — even if, as she points out, she is the “guinea pig” of the boygenius bandmates as the first of the trio to release a solo project since The Record.

“I feel really gratified when putting my albums out means something to someone else,” she says with a warm smile. “I wouldn’t do this if it didn’t matter to some people.”

Lucy Dacus photographed on March 5, 2025 in New York.
Lucy Dacus photographed on March 5, 2025 in New York.

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.

Tamela Mann earns her 12th No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel Airplay chart, breaking out of a tie with fellow gospel music icon Kirk Franklin for the most leaders in the list’s 20-year history. Mann achieves the honor as “Deserve To Win” ascends a spot to the top of the chart dated March 29.

Mann co-authored the song with Phillip Bryant and Tameka Mintze, and Jevon Hill produced it. The track is from Mann’s LP Live Breathe Fight, which was released last October.

“I never dreamed of achieving 12 No. 1 singles … I am so thankful for them all. Wow,” Mann tells Billboard. “I’m also thankful to be a blessing and an encouragement to others that we all can make it through. Know that you deserve all that’s coming to you. We are all overcomers.”

After Mann’s 12 Gospel Airplay No. 1s and Franklin’s 11 (through “Try Love” in December), James Fortune & FIYA follow with 10 leaders. Jekalyn Carr and Tasha Cobbs Leonard are next with eight each.

Mann has now rattled off six successive Gospel Airplay chart-toppers, as “Deserve To Win” follows “Working for Me,” which dominated for three weeks beginning last September; “Finished” (three, starting in March 2023); “He Did It for Me” (two, May 2022); “Help Me” (four, beginning in September 2021); and “Touch From You” (five, starting in December 2020).

Mann matches three acts who are also on active runs of six Gospel Airplay No. 1s in a row: Cobbs Leonard, Jonathan McReynolds and Pastor Mike Jr., the lattermost of whom has achieved the feat with his first six entries on the chart.

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Mufasa: The Lion King was one of the biggest movie of 2024. But, if you missed it in theaters, the prequel film is now available to stream at home.

Read on for the best way to stream Mufasa: The Lion King online.

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How to Watch Mufasa: The Lion King Online

Right now, Mufasa: The Lion King is now available to stream on Disney+ for subscribers only.

Not a subscriber? Sign up for Disney+ to watch all sorts of movies and TV shows from the Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm (Star Wars), Marvel Studios, Pixar Animation, Twentieth Century Studios, National Geographic and more.

For a limited time, you can bundle Disney+ and Hulu together for just $2.99 per month for your first four months. That’s a total savings of about 72% each month when compared to the regular price. After your four months of discounted pricing are up, you can cancel your subscription or continue on with the regular price of $10.99 per month for the Disney Duo. Learn more about Disney+ and Hulu here.

$2.99 $10.99 73% off

GET: DISNEY+ AND HULU BUNDLE

You can go ad-free for $19.99 per month. The Disney Trio with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ goes for $16.99 per month, while the ad-free version goes for $26.99 per month.

If you’re not into ESPN+, then you can go with the Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle with ads for $16.99 per month. However, the Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle without ads goes for $29.99 per month.

As for a standalone service, Disney+ starts at $9.99 per month for the ad-supported plan, while you can go ad-free for $15.99 per month. Also, you can add an extra subscriber to your account for an additional $7.99 per month.

Mufasa: The Lion King is streaming for $19.99 (reg. $29.99) to buy digitally on Prime Video, Apple TV and other premium video on-demand marketplaces.

However, rentals are accessible for 30 days after purchase, and for 48 hours once you begin watching the movie.

Directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), Mufasa: The Lion King is a prequel to the 2019 live-action version of The Lion King. It follows an orphaned cub named Mufasa (Aaron Pierre), who gets adopted into the royal family and becomes the brother of Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a young lion prince who later becomes Scar. The film then follows Mufasa’s journey to becoming the next king of the Pride Lands.

As for a physical media release, Mufasa: The Lion King will be available on DVD on sale for $27.15 (reg. $34.99), Blu-ray on sale for $40.99 and 4K Ultra HD Steelbook for $65.99 on Amazon. Both formats drop on Tuesday, April 1, but you can pre-order now.

How to buy 'Mufasa: The Lion King' online

PRE-ORDER

‘Mufasa: The Lion King’

Release date: April 1

$27.15 $34.99 22% off

Pre-Order DVD On Amazon


In the meantime, the Disney Store has a large number of merch and apparel for Musfasa: The Lion King ready for purchase. Below, you’ll find our picks of the best items.

How to buy 'Mufasa: The Lion King' merch and apparel online

Mufasa Typography Sweatshirt


How to buy 'Mufasa: The Lion King' merch and apparel online

Mufasa Pride Lands Royal Family Mug


The movie also features a voice cast with Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Tiffany Boone, Donald Glover, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Anika Noni Rose, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and others.

Meanwhile, the soundtrack for Mufasa: The Lion King also features original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a film score by Dave Metzger.

Mufasa: The Lion King is streamable on Disney+. In the meantime, you can watch a trailer for the movie below, or watch The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl featuring Jennifer Hudson, North West and other on Disney+.

Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox dealsstudio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.

The trend has been clear in recent years: Listeners are less enthralled with new songs. Current music’s share of ear-time has fallen from 27.8% in 2022 to 27.3% in 2023 to 26.7% last year, according to Luminate. In 2024, listening to catalog albums — releases more than 18 months old — increased by 6.5%, more than twice as fast as consumption of current albums.

Much of the music cued up on streaming services is still relatively recent: Luminate found that tracks released in the last five years account for roughly 50% of on-demand streams in the U.S. Even so, SoundCloud users are much more keenly attuned to the newest releases than the average listener — current music has accounted for more than 46% of plays on the platform in each of the last three years, according to SoundCloud’s latest Music Intelligence Report, an annual run-down of listener behavior which the company is making public for the first time.

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The document “highlights some of our unique positions in the industry,” says Wyatt Marshall, the company’s director of music intelligence. “An artist might start on SoundCloud before they go somewhere else. [As a result], you get people coming to listen to new music on SoundCloud, because that’s where it exists first.”

For young listeners, new music discovery is increasingly spread across a variety of short-form video platforms and streaming services; TikTok especially has commanded the conversation in recent years. Still, even “in today’s landscape dominated by TikTok and Instagram, SoundCloud remains a critical launchpad for Gen-Z’s emerging cult favorites,” says Corey Goldglit, manager of A&R at the distribution company Too Lost. “While social media fuels trends, and Spotify fuels hits, SoundCloud continues to be where devoted fans first discover raw, innovative talent like Fakemink, OsamaSon, 1oneam, and Nettspend.”

While SoundCloud is best known for nurturing rappers and electronic producers, it’s adding value in other genres as well: Sean Lewow, co-founder of the label Music Soup, has seen the platform introduce listeners to Waylon Wyatt and Vincent Mason, a pair of rising country artists on his roster. (Music Soup is a joint venture with Interscope Records and Darkroom Records.) Uploads of country and folk music on SoundCloud have risen by more than 50% in the last two years, while streams of these styles rose 15% on SoundCloud in 2024. 

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This mirrors the growing interest in these genres in the U.S. and around the world. “These scenes are attracting people [on SoundCloud] who have always been into it,” Marshall says, “but also engaging a new group of people who are discovering these sounds.”

Since SoundCloud artists and users can interact with music in ways beyond just clicking “play” and “skip” — commenting on songs, for example, or sending direct messages to peers — the platform has additional data to parse when trying to map scenes. “We look at social interaction amongst artists as an indicator of affinity,” Marshall explains. “Zooming out from that gives a feel for what shapes a scene.”

And for how scenes meld borrow from and build off each other. Historically, it’s been difficult for U.K. hip-hop to acquire fans en masse outside of its home country — even with other English-speaking listeners. The Music Intelligence Report, however, singles out two sets of British acts “that are building their sound around the U.S. underground while adding a unique English twist;” in the process, they are “drawing listeners from England and beyond.” 

These two groups — the first includes fakemink, Feng, and GhostInnaFurCoat, while the other counts Rico Ace, kwes e, and TeeboFG as members — enjoyed a 71% uptick in streams in the past two years, according to SoundCloud’s data. “In recent months,” the report continues, “tracks from these artists are increasingly showing engagement spikes indicative of future success.”

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The Music Intelligence Report identifies other sounds that SoundCloud believes are poised to become more popular in 2025: Vinahouse, which Marshall describes as a “hyper-speed, really energetic” style of club music that’s popular in Vietnam; Brazilian plugg, the latest mutation of a hip-hop sub-genre that has thrived on SoundCloud for several years; and shoegaze, which has also been enjoying a revival on TikTok. 

New rappers continue to see success on the platform as well. The third most-played account created on SoundCloud last year belonged to BabyChiefDoIt, who trailed behind only VonOff1700 and Raq Baby. BabyChiefDoIt signed a deal with Artist Partner Group in August, and Izzy Elefant, the label’s head of streaming, calls the platform an “essential” part of the rapper’s rise. 

SoundCloud’s features, especially “real-time comments and direct messaging, create an interactive experience that sets it apart from other streaming services,” Elefant continues. “These tools allow BabyChiefDoIt to engage with listeners directly, receive immediate feedback, and foster a sense of community.”

In a splintered landscape for music discovery, Lewow adds, it’s important to “leave no stone unturned.” SoundCloud “has opened our artists up to an audience that they might not have found otherwise.”

Lady Gaga announced the dates for her anticipated summer-fall 2025 Mayhem Ball tour in support of her new Mayhem album on Wednesday morning (March 26). “This is my first arena tour since 2018,” said Gaga in a statement. “There’s something electric about a stadium, and I love every moment of those shows. But with The MAYHEM Ball, I wanted to create a different kind of experience — something more intimate — closer, more connected — that lends itself to the live theatrical art I love to create.”

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After a run of previously announced shows in April and May, Gaga’s first North American and European tour since her 2022 Chromatica Ball tour will open in the U.S. with a double-down in Las Vegas on July 16 and 18, two shows in Seattle, three nights at Madison Square Garden in New York and two-night runs in Miami, Toronto and Chicago. She will then play a run of arena dates across Europe from Sept. 29 through Nov. 20.

Tickets for the North American dates will go on sale on March 31, with an artist pre-sale beginning on April 2 at 12 p.m. local time; sign up for that pre-sale here through 8 a.m. ET on Sunday (March 30). The general on-sale will kick off on April 3 at 12 p.m. local time here. There will also be a Citi pre-sale for North America beginning on Monday (March 31) at 12 p.m. local time through April 2 at 11 a.m. local time here. A Verizon pre-sale will begin on April 1 at 12 p.m. local time through April 2 at 11 a.m. local time here.

Mother Monster will gear up for the tour by headlining Coachella next month, followed by a pair of previously announced dates (April 26-27) at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, and some other already announced spring dates, including a free May 3 show on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and four nights at the National Stadium in Singapore on May 18, 18, 21 and 24.

Check out the dates for the 2025 Mayhem Ball tour below.

July 16 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena

July 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena

August 6 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena

August 7 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena

August 22 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

August 23 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

August 26 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden

August 31 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center

Sept. 1 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center

Sept. 10 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena

Sept. 11 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena

Sept. 15 – Chicago, IL @ United Center

Sept. 17 – Chicago, IL @ United Center

Sept. 29 – London, UK @ The O2

Sept. 30 – London, UK @ The O2

Oct. 2 – London, UK @ The O2

Oct. 7 – Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live

Oct. 12 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Avicii Arena

Oct. 13 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Avicii Arena

Oct. 19 – Milan, Italy @ Unipol Forum

Oct. 20 – Milan, Italy @ Unipol Forum

Oct. 28 – Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi

Oct. 29 – Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Sant Jordi

Nov. 4 – Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena

Nov. 5 – Berlin, Germany @ Uber Arena

Nov. 9 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome

Nov. 11 – Antwerp, Belgium @ Sportpaleis Arena

Nov. 13 – Lyon, France @ LDLC Arena

Nov. 14 – Lyon, France @ LDLC Arena

Nov. 17 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena

Nov. 18 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena

Nov. 20 – Paris, France @ Accor Arena

Selena Gomez isn’t afraid to talk about the double standard when it comes to comments about her appearance. On this week’s episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, Gomez lamented that she gets “a tad bitter” when people mention her weight, noting that those comments are always aimed at women.

Appearing with fiancé Benny Blanco — who said he never reads too deeply into what people say about him online because he’d rather “free-fall through life” without knowing what anyone else thinks — Gomez said her take is very different. “I was also going to point out that women have it much worse,” she said. “From my perspective, it’s pretty wild, and I think this isn’t news to anybody, that obviously women have a lot more intense feelings from their appearance to what they are wearing to everything.”

The scrutiny is so intense that Gomez said it gets in her head when she’s getting ready for the red carpet. “When I get prepared for an event, 90 percent of the time I’m just like, ‘I just hope I can take the picture and sit down.’” Gomez said, “It’s the character that gets judged, it’s the way I’m not white enough, I’m not Mexican enough. There’s just so many different things that come up in my face that I can’t help but see. But I fall victim to looking at things, and it really doesn’t add to your life, but it’s just so difficult. From the choices of people you date, it’s like nobody cares about those kind of things with men. They’re just like, ‘yeah, the did that, they said that.’”

Gomez, 32, said the most frequent unsolicited comments she sees are about her weight, with “everyone” online having “something to say” about it. “My weight’s a big one too,” she said. “It’s really making me sad and — not even sad cause, I’m not a victim, I just think it’s made me a tad bitter, and I feel really guilty for saying that, but it’s true.” In the past, Gomez has shared that the medicine she takes to combat the chronic autoimmune disorder lupus can cause weight fluctuations.

In November, Gomez hit back at negative posts about her posture at a red carpet event promoting her Oscar-nominated film Emilia Perez, after some TikTok users suggested she was trying to hide her body with poses in which her hands were positioned across her stomach. “This makes me sick,” Gomez wrote in the comments of the speculation. “I have SEBO [SIBO] in my small intestine. It flares up. I don’t care that I don’t look like a stick figure. I don’t have that body. End of story. No I am NOT a victim. I’m just human.”

As she’s revealed before, the singer also told Shetty that she takes mental health breaks from being online and “most of the time” she ignores the haters, noting again that she doesn’t have social apps on her phone. “So there are ways to combat it,” she said. “I’m not like, ‘I hate it.’ I understand the power of what social media is, it’s just tricky.”

Watch Blanco and Gomez on the Shetty podcast below.