Music Friday: Selena Gomez's Suitors Are Wrapped Around Her Finger Like a 'Ring'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fabulous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, pop star Selena Gomez drives home a message of self-empowerment and self-worth in her Latin-infused 2020 release, "Ring."

In the song, the 28-year-old former Disney Channel actress turns up her nose at insincere suitors because she's "one in a billion." Diamond and jewelry references amplify her sentiments, and, at one point, she even compares herself to basketball legend Miichael Jordan — the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time).

She sings, "I'm breakin' hearts like a heart attack / Got him right where the carats at / Wrapped 'round my finger like a ring, ring, ring / They just like puppets on a string, string, string."

Written by Gomez and five collaborators, "Ring" has been compared favorably to Camila Cabello's "Havana," Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" and Santana's "Smooth."

The song appeared as the fifth track on her chart-topping, third solo studio album, Rare. It was the third time in a row that a Gomez album reached #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums chart.

Born in Grand Prairie, TX, in 1992, Gomez and her teenage mom struggled financially. The singer tells the story of walking with her mom to the local dollar store to buy spaghetti for dinner.

Gomez competed in pageants as a child, but her life would change dramatically when she was cast as a 7-year-old on the children's TV series Barney & Friends. After she aged out of that series, she earned a cameo role in the film Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. That opportunity opened the door to a starring role in 2007 on The Wizards of Waverly Place. At age 16, she signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records, the same label that signed Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato.

Today, the singer's net worth is said to be at least $75 million. She was named to the "Forbes 30 Under 30" list at the age of 23.

In 2017, Gomez underwent a kidney transplant due to lupus complications and now she speaks publicly about her treatment and recovery.

"I've gone through a lot of medical issues," Gomez told Interview magazine, "and I know that I can reach people who are going through similarly scary things — an organ transplant, or being on dialysis, or going away for treatment."

Trivia: Gomez loves everything about pickles. She revealed on a UK talk show that she's obsessed with them. "That is my thing and I drink the juice from the jar too," she said. "They sell them at gas stations and movie theaters in Texas. I go to the movies and have popcorn and pickles."

Please check out the audio track of Gomez performing "Ring." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…

"Ring"
Written by Selena Gomez, Sean Douglas, Julie Frost, Breyan Isaac, David Ciente and Nolan Lambroza. Performed by Selena Gomez.

You all in your feelings, baby, all into me
I'm one in a billion, baby, don't you agree?

Obviously, you know, I'm aware of that
I'm breakin' hearts like a heart attack
Got him right where the carats at

Wrapped 'round my finger like a ring, ring, ring
They just like puppets on a string, string, string
I put it down, they call me up
They doin' way too much
So I'll just let it ring, ring, ring (Oh-oh)

Yeah, I received your message, all twenty-three (Twenty-three)
You know I'm Jordan with it, G-O-A-T (G-O-A-T)

Obviously, you know, I'm aware of that
I'm breakin' hearts like a heart attack
I got him right where the carats at (Yeah)

Wrapped 'round my finger like a ring, ring, ring
They just like puppets on a string, string, string
I put it down, they call me up
They doin' way too much
So I'll just let it ring, ring, ring
Wrapped 'round my finger like a ring, ring, ring
They wanna give me everything, thing, thing
I put it down, they call me up
Oh, no, no, no, no, no
So I'll just let it ring, ring, ring

Circlin' me, they just like satellites (Ooh)
Circlin' me all day and every night (Ooh, yeah)
Circlin' me, I'm sure you sympathize (Ooh)
A-la-la-la-la-la-la-la (Ooh)
Oh, na-na

Wrapped 'round my finger like a ring, ring, ring
They just like puppets on a string, string, string
I put it down, they call me up
They doin' way too much
So I'll just let it ring, ring, ring
Wrapped 'round my finger like a ring, ring, ring
They wanna give me everything, thing, thing
I put it down, they call me up
Oh, no, no, no, no, no
So I'll just let it ring, ring, ring

Credit: Image by Lunchbox LP, Culver City, California, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

7-Year-Old Finds a Diamond and Inspires the Journalist Who Got It Back

Jessica Amis, an Emmy-winning digital journalist for CBS-affiliate THV11 in Little Rock, recently found herself at the center of a story about a lost diamond, a precocious 7-year-old and the significance of "things" that remind you of stuff you never want to forget.

Amis had been enjoying a meal with two co-workers in the outdoor picnic area of Hill Station, a popular restaurant in the Hillcrest neighborhood of the capital city, when a bent prong on her vintage engagement ring allowed the center diamond to become dislodged.

The diamond disappeared into a bed of gravel — a ground cover that Amis described as the "tiniest and shiniest gravel I’ve ever seen."

Her diamond blended in so perfectly that it was impossible to see. She even returned multiple times to sift through the gravel, but all of her attempts came up empty.

Enter the hero of our story: 7-year-old J. Harley Calloway.

The precocious youngster explained how easy it was to find the diamond, about a month after Amis had lost it.

“I just dig some dirt, and then I found the diamond,” he told the interviewer, who happened to be Amis. “I just looked down when I was grabbing the dirt and I said, ‘Mommy, I found a diamond.’”

Calloway remembered that his mom said, “That’s not real!”

Well, it was very real.

Fortunately, Amis had shared her story and contact information with the restaurant's management, and Calloway's family was considerate enough to turn the stone in. The staff at Hill Station immediately made the connection and called Amis with the good news.

In the her two-minute report, Amis waxed poetic about how people perceive "things" as they grow older. Some things are just things, but others are things that remind you of stuff you never want to forget.

The diamond in her ring is a "thing" that holds memories of "getting engaged, of dancing the night away, of building a life," she said. “And now it’s a reminder of the goodness in others and the hope that comes from just that.”

Amis rewarded Calloway with a Rock and Gem Dig kit from the Smithsonian gift shop.

Please check out the report at this link…

Credits: Screen captures via Youtube.com.

Leibish Wins 16 Stones at Penultimate 2020 Pink Argyle Diamonds Tender

Leibish, the New York-based colored diamond specialist, upped its bids this year by 20% to secure 16 of the 62 gems offered by Rio Tinto at the penultimate 2020 Pink Argyle Diamonds Tender.  

The company's biggest prize was "The Argyle Sakura Diamond," a 1.84-carat, pear-shaped fancy vivid purplish-pink stone that had been touted by the mining company as one of the six "hero" diamonds from 2020's offering.

The tender, which represents a collection of the rarest diamonds from a year’s worth of production at the Argyle mine in the remote east Kimberley region of Western Australia, was momentous because the mine ceased operating in November.

During its 37 years of production, the mine famously accounted for nearly 95% of the world’s pink and red diamonds.

Leibish is calling its 2020 tender cache the "Pink Sunset Collection" in homage to Argyle's last days of mining and its historic finale. Leibish's acquisition included 11 of the 21 stones that weighed in at greater than 1 carat. These represented the rarest and most valuable pink diamonds in the group.

Leibish noted that each diamond in the "Pink Sunset Collection" will be elegantly displayed in its own presentation case, accompanied by its provenance.

"As next year (2021) will be the last Argyle tender, we bid on all stones, since the goods will become super rare, in high demand and expensive," said Leibish executive Shmulik Polnauer in a recent Rapaport Magazine report.

Polnauer estimated that asking prices at the 2020 tender were 15% higher than the previous year, so Leibish upped its bids 20% and more to ensure that the company would secure a substantial share of the lots.

The 2020 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender — titled “One Lifetime, One Encounter” — included 62 diamonds weighing a total of 57.23 carats. The final Argyle tender is expected to take place later this year.

Credits: Images courtesy of Leibish.