Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco’s ‘Ojos Tristes’ vs. Jeanette’s ’80s Hit: Here’s What’s Different

Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco — her fiancé who happens to be one of the top pop producers of today — are making the rounds with their joint album I Said I Love You First. 

Best representing the creative collaboration between two halves of a shared heart, the set is home to 15 tracks, including “Call Me When You Break Up,” featuring Gracie Abrams, and “I Can’t Get Enough,” the pair’s 2019 team-up with J Balvin and Tainy. 

“It just felt like it was a little taste of what we are and how we made this together, and how much we loved it and how much we love each other,” Gomez recently said about working with her romantic partner in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And it just felt like it was meant to be.”

One of the set’s standout track is “Ojos Tristes,” a bilingual glam-pop track that features vocals from the Marías leader María Zardoya, who is also credited as a songwriter and producer. The song — whose lyric video has nearly 2 million views and is in the top 10 on YouTube’s Trending chart for music at the time of publishing — samples Jeanette’s 1981 classic “El Muchacho de los Ojos Tristes.”

Below, Billboard compares the 2025 version with the original by the English-born Spanish singer.

Title: “El Muchacho de los Ojos Tristes”

Artist: Jeanette

Year: 1981

Song: A song about a young man with sad eyes became one of the most emblematic songs of Jeanette’s career. Lyrically, she sings about coming across a lonely man who has sad eyes and needs love, and her desire to see him again and make him feel better. Musically, it’s a soft, glam-pop ballad that transmits melancholy backed by Jeanette’s dreamy and dulcet vocals. “El Muchacho de los Ojos Tristes” was written and produced by Manuel Alejandro and marked the third single from Jeanette’s Corazón de Poeta album released in 1981.

Video: A video published on Jeanette’s official YouTube channel shows the then-30-year-old singer performing the song in a live television setting. Completely alone onstage, the artist interprets the song’s lyrics with grace, passion and her own sad, brown eyes glistening. She’s wearing a sequined purple dress with cowboy boots as she sways side to side.

Title: “Ojos Tristes”

Artist: Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco

Year: 2025

Song: While the ’80s song is about the desire of knowing more about that mysterious man with the sad eyes, Gomez’s “Ojos Tristes” is about an unwanted breakup. “It’s not your fault I have to leave/ Please don’t you look that way, baby […] Those sad eyes, sad eyes/ You know I don’t wanna say goodbye,” she sings at the beginning of the track. Produced by Blanco, Josh Conway and Maria Zardoya of The Marías, the song conserves its hazy-disco aura, but with more percussion and instrumentation. The Marías also sings Jeanette’s timeless chorus in Spanish and adds another verse about never forgetting her ex despite the years.

Video: An official music video has yet to be released, but a lyric video featuring Gomez hugging Blanco in bed on a loop captures the nostalgic sentiment of the song.