Did Justin Bieber Just Cover This Song For Selena?

Oh, young love. It never really dies, does it? Especially that first love — you never forget the person you go through your teen years loving, hating, making out with, and breaking up with. Maybe it’s because we go through so many formative years with the first people we love. Maybe that’s why they end up being the people we tend to love forever. Like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez: No matter how long they claim to have been broken up, rumors are always floating around about whether they’re together again. Meanwhile, they release song after song with lyrics that sound kinda sorta a lot like their relationship with each other. So, when Justin Bieber performed an impromptu acoustic version of “Hotline Bling” and changed the lyrics in a super obvious way, I had to wonder if he wasn’t singing this version of the famous Drake song to his ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez.

So let’s just break this down, shall we? There is already enough to dissect when it comes to Justin and Selena and whether or not they are currently involved without having to throw song lyrics into it. So let’s concentrate on the lyrics, on Justin’s body language as he performs the song, and on the few details from their relationship that he might be referring to.

First of all: The lyrics. There are some pretty significant changes that Bieber makes to the song, including rewriting pretty much all of an entire verse. His version refers to an unnamed “you” who seems to be lying about the status of their relationship to other guys and to the rest of the world.

Hmmmm…

His version also says that this person doesn’t care about his love even though he is still in love with that person, still ready to take that person back the minute she calls and says the word. But here’s where it gets interesting. The lyrics mention seeing this “you” with another guy, specifically in a Snapchat on this mystery man’s tour bus. Could this be referring to when Gomez was spotted out and about with Zedd, a famous DJ and producer? The two were spotted holding hands during a Golden Globes after-party in early 2015.

And then there is the way that Bieber is singing the song, standing upright and looking, for the most part, pissed. For a song about being there when she is ready to take him back, he doesn’t look very forgiving. In fact, when he sings “Call me on that hotline bling, right now, if you want to be with me,” it reads more as desperate than inviting.

Clearly Bieber is investing a lot of emotion into this performance, but whether or not he meant it for Gomez is unclear. What is clear is that the level of emotion he put into singing this song shows that he is at least calling upon past hurt to sing it authentically and with a ton of heart. And you have to admire a guy for putting himself out there like that.