Growing up, there were few celebrity friendships I was as invested in as Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato’s.
Watching the pair’s iconic 2008 vlogs, made around the time the two besties were cast in the Disney Channel Original Movie Princess Protection Program, pulled back the curtain on celebrity culture (at the time) to reveal two regular best friends.
So, you best believe my jaw hit the floor and went around the corner when news broke that the two 34-year-old stars had reunited to recreate the vlogs they made together nearly two decades ago.
Taking to Instagram on October 28, Gomez and Lovato announced the reunion through Gomez’s beauty brand, Rare Beauty:
“YO YO YO 🤭💗 18 years later, Delena is back with a vlog, and yes, they’re still making each other (and us!) blush. #delenaisback”
Here’s everything you need to know about the collab… and maybe why you need to check on the millennial women in your life.
Why are Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez reuniting?
The video is full of nods to the pair’s original vlogs, including the “Yo, yo, yo” intro, reading out fan questions, and Lovato saying she likes the colour black (IYKYK). But the collab isn’t solely nostalgia.
Lovato and Gomez have also launched a blush bundle with Gomez’s iconic beauty brand, Rare Beauty, called the Delena: The Soft Pinch Liquid Blush Bundle.
The collab pairs two iconic shades of Rare Beauty’s best-selling blush. Gomez wears Hope, a nude mauve, and Lovato wears Virtue, a beige peach.
For our Australian readers, you can purchase Hope and Virtue individually at Sephora Australia and as a bundle via Rare Beauty from October 29.
Why Delena was bigger than a Disney friendship
Gomez and Lovato, dubbed “Delena” by fans, practically grew up together, from appearing on Barney & Friends as young children to co-starring in Princess Protection Program.
The pair were as close as you could get to going viral in 2008, when they posted a series of vlogs to YouTube.
Sure, two 16-year-olds posting videos online isn’t a big deal now, but seeing the polished celebrity persona dropped, with two best friends joking about their gap teeth and acting like normal teenagers, meant so much to so many young millennial girls.
When the besties drifted apart in 2010, the media framed it as a rivalry. But any adult reading this nowadays recognises that teenage friendships are more complicated than that.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Lovato told MTV News in 2013. “We’ve had periods of time where we grew apart, and we just didn’t really talk.”
Both women grew up under intense public scrutiny while battling their own mental health struggles, later becoming prominent voices on the subject. Lovato has spoken openly about addiction, an eating disorder, and bipolar disorder.
Gomez has likewise discussed lupus, a kidney transplant, anxiety, depression, and a bipolar diagnosis.
Since then, the Princess Protection Program co-stars have shown plenty of support for one another.
But honestly, this latest collab takes the cake.
