Selena Gomez Surprises High School Students After They Request She Sing the National Anthem

“I saw the sign and so I had to come.”

Selena Gomez
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Singer and actress Selena Gomez made a surprise appearance at one Colorado high school, and just because the students requested she attend a volleyball game.

On Saturday, Aug. 31, the Only Murders in the Building star posted a series of photos and a video on Instagram of her trip to a local high school in Telluride, making a group of excited high school students' (and one hyped girl's volleyball squad's) day, week, month, and probably year.

"They asked!!" the pop star captioned the post. "Couldn’t help it, it’s my first time in Telluride!"

The post even showed a sign the students had made Gomez, asking that she attend one of two volleyball matches over the weekend and sing the National Anthem.

"Selena Gomez, please sing the National Anthem @ one of home games," the students wrote, before listing the date and times of their matches and signing their request "THS volleyball team."

In the video shared by Gomez, she is seen entering the gym to the surprise and excitement of the high school volleyball team.

"I saw the sign and so I had to come," she told a crowd of young people as they laughed, covered their mouths, and almost instinctually gravitated toward her. Additional photos showed Gomez posing with the team (talk about a yearbook-worthy photo!) and the singer surrounded by eager high school students as she happily signed photographs.

While the surprise visit was certainly a shock to many, Gomez was actually in the area, attending the 2024 Telluride Film Festival to promote her new film Emilia Pérez.

Her co-star, Zoe Saldana, even wrote in the comment section of Gomez's Instagram post, praising the singer for her kindness and generosity.

"The kindest heart indeed," Saldana wrote.

Gomez's boyfriend, Benny Blanco, also commented, posting a series of hearts and smiley faces with heart eyes.

selena gomez benny blanco

Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco.

(Image credit: NY Knicks)

Actress Ashley Park also commented on the post, writing: "This is so sweet ❤️."

In 2020, Gomez opened up about how much her fans mean to her.

"I love my fans very, very much and it's not that I love them because they love me. I love them because it's really been about the journey and I feel like I've grown up with a lot of people," she said in an interview with Spotify. "The most heartbreaking conversations are where they are just telling me that they are suffering.

"I never understood when people said, ‘It saved my life.' I just didn't understand that," she continued at the time. "I wish I could just grab every single one of them in their face and tell them how loved they are, how important they are or how capable they are of absolutely anything. And if I did all of this and I'm just a girl from Texas and it's still happening to me, you can do anything."

Danielle Campoamor
Weekend Editor

Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.