Selena Gomez had a hit with “Come & Get It,” but there was another superstar that it was intended for – Rihanna. It’s no surprise, considering the fact that the song’s writers and producers are behind some of Rihanna’s biggest career hits. Co-written by Ester Dean, Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen, the latter two of whom are the songwriting and production team known as Stargate, “Come & Get It” was originally written with Rhianna in mind.
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Dean, who rose to prominence as Cynthia-Rose Adams in the film Pitch Perfect, had collaborated with Rihanna previously, having served as the producer on Rihanna’s Grammy Album of the Year nominated Loud. She also co-wrote Rihanna’s hits “Rude Boy,” “S&M” and “What’s My Name?” with Stargate, while the duo is also behind “Don’t Stop the Music,” “Diamonds” and “Only Girl (In the World).”
The trio wrote “Come & Get It” for Rihanna’s 2011 album, Talk That Talk. However, the superstar passed on the track and it ended up in Gomez’s hands. It proved to be a pivotal song in Gomez’s career, as it was released as the first single off her solo debut album, Stars Dance. The Bollywood-influenced track had its debut live performance at the 2013 MTV Movie & TV Awards, with both the live performances and music video choreography inspired by one of Gomez’s idols, Britney Spears.
“I’m a huge Stargate fan — I think their beats and what they produce is just gold,” Gomez told Billboard in 2013. “And Ester Dean is just an incredible vocalist that a lot of people know, but if you actually hear her voice just solely on her own, it’s just stunning, and it’s really haunting.” “The reason I wanted it to be the first single was because radiates, as I said before, trust and out and that’s something I’m willing to share with the world,” she added in an interview with Starpulse. “This is the place I want to be and want to represent something good and be a good example, so I think it’s fun.”
“Come & Get It” served as Gomez’s first release as a solo artist after four years as part of the band Selena Gomez & the Scene. It set the stage for the next phase of her career, as it marked her first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching a peak of No. 6, and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop Video. However, as Gomez evolved as an artist, she saw the song from a different perspective three years later.
“I love Stargate more than anything, but it’s very difficult for me to perform live. It’s not my song. To me, it sounds like a Rihanna reject,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2016 while preparing for her Revival Tour. “That was just in the beginning. I was so young. I was wanting a hit, ‘I don’t know if I need a hit, but maybe I do so people can respect me?’ I’m grateful what [‘Come & Get It’] did for me, so it’d be stupid not to acknowledge it.”
“Come & Get It” has been certified three times platinum by the RIAA in the U.S. for sales of more than three million copies.
Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for AFI
