Selena Gomez Will Star in Linda Ronstadt Biopic

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | January 11, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | January 11, 2024 |

Just when I thought I was done with Selena Gomez for the week, news broke that she will star as singer-songwriter and Grammy winner Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic. Walk the Line’s James Keach, who made the 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, is producing, but as far as we know there is no director or distributor attached yet, and no other casting announcements have been made.

It’s not entirely surprising news, since rumors of it have been circling for a little while now, and Gomez fanned the flames yesterday when she posted a story of Ronstadt’s memoir.

Selena Gomez shares photo reading Linda Ronstadt's memoir amid rumors that she’ll play her in a biopic. pic.twitter.com/6wnxh6mm1g

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 10, 2024

It also makes sense because both singers are of Mexican descent, and while I don’t know the musical lingo, there is a certain quality to Gomez’s singing voice that I think could remind me of Ronstadt’s under the right circumstances (though no one could hold a candle). It’s as if both of them sometimes sound like they’re right on the edge of their range, you know?

I was introduced to Ronstadt by my former thespian parents with Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, the 1983 film production with Kevin Kline as The Pirate King and Ronstadt as Mabel. My Southern mother, when she realized I’d never heard of Ronstadt before that first viewing, rectified the situation by playing the Trio albums, Ronstadt’s collection of old love songs with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, so often that the humming melody from “Little Rosewood Casket” is basically always stuck in my head.

I called my mom to get her reaction to the news, and she said, “Well, that might work.” When I told her I was referring to her as “my Southern mother” for this article and using her as an expert, she said, “But Linda Rondstat’s not Southern.”

“Okay, yes, Mom, but she’s a country singer,” I said.

“Country rock,” she said. I relented and asked if she had any more thoughts on Gomez.

“I think she can do it if she lets go of her Selena-ness,” she said. I asked her what she meant. “Well, Linda’s not so…fancy. And she could sing anything. Selena will need to loosen up and be able to wail,” she said, and then she had to get back to work because it was 9 am on a Thursday.

Too bad Gomez is off social media right now and can’t respond to that.