In what can only be described as a plot twist no one saw coming, Selena Gomez — yes, the Selena Gomez, queen of sass and Rare Beauty founder — casually dropped into a high school volleyball game while in Colorado for the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. We’ve seen surprise celebrity appearances before, but this one is a set and spike above the rest. (See what I did there? Volleyball jokes already.)
So, here’s the tea: the 32-year-old “Only Murders in the Building” star received a handwritten invitation from some incredibly bold fans. And by handwritten, I mean a piece of paper that looked like it was crafted in the 3rd-period study hall. It read, and I quote, “Selena Gomez, please sing the National Anthem @ one of the home games.” Now, how they thought Selena would just happen to be scrolling through Instagram while enjoying a smoothie and decide, “Yeah, I’ll hit up that volleyball game,” is beyond me. But dreams do come true.
Selena, being the benevolent ruler of cool that she is, showed up! But no, she didn’t belt out the National Anthem like some kind of pop star superhero. Instead, she walked in like, “I saw the sign, so I had to come.” Casual. Totally normal behavior. Could you imagine? One minute you’re worried about missing a serve, and the next, you look up and there’s Selena Gomez just chilling in jeans and a pinstriped jacket, radiating nonchalant fabulousness.
If that wasn’t enough to cause a minor teenage riot, she took some selfies with the team, signed autographs like a pro, and (get this) signed someone’s forehead. Yes, you read that right — she basically turned some lucky fan into a human autograph book. Somewhere out there, a forehead is feeling extra special.
Her Instagram caption summed it all up with, “They asked!! Couldn’t help it, it’s my first time in Telluride.” I mean, how could you resist? Telluride was clearly not prepared for this kind of celebrity ambush.
Meanwhile, the internet is buzzing with rumors that she’s engaged to boyfriend Benny Blanco. But let’s be honest, at this point, Gomez could show up at a bake sale or PTA meeting and people would be more interested in her surprise appearances than any engagement news.
All in all, we can only hope the volleyball team wasn’t too starstruck to actually, you know, play volleyball.
Selena Gomez: Making high school sports legendary, one forehead at a time.