It is a casual line that sometimes the stars align, a usually flippant way to convey how other-worldly happiness and good fortune occasionally seem to appear in our lives as if by magic. But for multi-talented actor/singer/businesswoman Selena Gomez (07/22/1992, Cancer Monkey) and producer/songwriter Benny Blanco (03/08/1988, Pisces Dragon), it seems like nothing could be closer to the truth.

The two first collaborated in 2015, with Blanco receiving production credits for the tracks “Kill Em With Kindness” and “Same Old Love” from Gomez’s second solo album, Revival (2015). Some eight years later, in December 2023, Gomez confirmed via Instagram that the two were in a relationship. Among many expressions of affection since then, Blanco told broadcaster Howard Stern (01/12/1954, Capricorn Snake) in May this year, “When I look at her … I’m always just like, I don’t know a world where it could be better than this. We laugh all f— day, she inspires me.” In an interview with Vanity Fair published earlier this month, Gomez described, “I’ve never been loved this way. He’s just been a light. A complete light in my life. He’s my best friend. I love telling him everything.” 

Selena Gomez is born on the cusp of Cancer and Leo in a Chinese year of the Monkey. Cusp energy usually brings a sense of flux, a quality of exuberant restlessness that can sometimes manifest as playfulness, sometimes as turbulence. In the case of the Cancer/Leo cusp, this quality of usually productive tension arises from the transition out of Cancer’s empathic, interior dreamworld, into the more leadership- and performance- oriented energy of Leo. The Chinese sign of the Monkey, meanwhile, is also associated with restless energy, with brilliant creativity and excitability balanced against a proclivity for boredom. Selena Gomez has arguably fulfilled this destiny in ways that are as exemplary as anyone, not only by achieving extraordinary success in creative fields of music and acting, but also by bringing into the open serious health struggles, for example in her documentary film, My Mind & Me (2022). 

Other famous people born on the Cancer/Leo cusp in a Monkey year include notable high-profile individuals who have leveraged extraordinary skills and success into critically beneficial consciousness-raising initiatives. Brazilian model and businesswoman Gisele Bündchen (07/20/1980, Cancer Monkey), for example, is also a prominent spokeswoman for environmental causes, while model/actor Stephanie Seymour (07/23/1968, Leo Monkey) has spoken openly about the heartbreaking grief of losing her son Harry. Acclaimed Portuguese classical pianist Maria João Pires (07/23/1944, Leo Monkey) founded the Partitura project to promote innovative interdisciplinary music scholarship. The novel The Citadel(1937) by A.J. Cronin (07/19/1896, Cancer Monkey), a scathing exposé of medical services in early-twentieth-century London, is widely credited with leading to the formation of Britain’s National Health Service. 

Born under the sign of the dreamer, Pisces, Benny Blanco could be expected to be esoterically creative, introspective, and prone to changeability and isolation. But Blanco’s Chinese sign of the Dragon offers a powerful contrary influence, being the most dramatic, self-possessed and extroverted of all the Chinese signs. An intriguing New York Times profile in 2018 entitled, “How Benny Blanco Became the Most Popular Oddball in Pop Music”, commented that, he “is decidedly private about his personal life for such an extrovert”, and quoted him as saying, “I definitely don’t want to be famous at all. I beat the system—I get all the luxuries of being famous without actually being famous!” 

Other celebrities born in the second week of Pisces in a Dragon exhibit similar qualities of unorthodoxy and stunning performativity. The actor Raul Julia (03/09/1940), probably best known to modern audiences for his role as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family (1991) also transformed productions of Shakespeare in the US by embracing his own identity rather than putting on British airs and graces: “I started realizing that I didn’t have to do it [in a British way]. I could bring myself to it. I could bring my own culture, my own Puerto Rican background, my own Spanish culture, my own rhythms.” Novelist Bret Easton Ellis (03/07/1964), most famously associated with American Psycho (1991), has prominently defied mainstream values and attitudes to establish a uniquely attention-grabbing brand of provocation. The celebrated French actress Juliette Binoche (03/09/1964), told the Guardian earlier this year, 

I don’t know what I see when I look in the mirror. Sometimes it feels like the outside and the inside don’t fit together, depending on the morning or evening, or the light, my mood, if I’m in character, not in character, if I’m in love or not in love.

Speaking of love, let’s not delay any longer—as a couple, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco share simply sensational, Golden Nine energy. 

On the Western side, the Trine combination of Cancer and Pisces is one of the zodiac’s absolute best pairings. The shared element of Water means these two can understand each other in the most enviable, unspoken ways, their mutual empathy and intuition providing an emotional depth to their respective worldviews that is deeply compatible. And let’s not forget, with Gomez being born on the cusp with Leo, the mysterious the Quincunx connection between Leo and Pisces can also prove delightfully enriching here, offering profound creative and sexual excitement into the mix. Perhaps even more grounding and dependable, especially from the perspective of long term growth, is the connection on the Chinese side between the Monkey and Dragon signs. This Trine connection is as strong as any in the Chinese zodiac. The Dragon is one of the few signs with the dazzling fortitude necessary to hold the Monkey’s interest and keep them inspired and entertained. The Dragon, meanwhile, tends to recognize instinctively how their prospects for explosive impact will be enhanced and supported by the extraordinary breadth and depth of the Monkey’s many talents.

The world being what it is, there is already speculation about engagement, marriage, and family for these two popular celebrities. Whatever lies in store for them practically, we are betting that their connection proves an enduring source of warmth, reassurance, and inspiration.