Selena Gomez Wants To Give Her Billboard Award To Francia Raisa For Saving Her Life

Thursday night, Selena Gomez was honoured as Billboard's woman of the year. The star dedicated the award to her friend Francia Raisa.

"To be honest, I think Francia should be getting this award," Gomez said, choking on tears, "because she saved my life."

Raisa donated a kidney to Gomez this summer when it became evident that the pop star's lupus was really affecting her quality of life. Gomez needed a kidney transplant, but prospects of obtaining a new kidney looked grim. In an interview with NBC's Savannah Guthrie, Raisa revealed that she decided to undergo testing after seeing Gomez struggle to open a water bottle.

"It just vomited out of me, I was like, 'Of course I'll get tested,'" Raisa told Guthrie. "I called her assistant, and I said, 'Give me the information. I wanna do this.'"

Gomez and Raisa spent the summer in recovery from the operation. Gomez later explained that the surgery prevented her from promoting her new music — she released "Bad Liar" and "Fetish" in July of this year, but has not performed either song live yet. Gomez performed live for the first time this year at the 2017 AMAs, where she sang "Wolves," a collaboration she released this fall.

While accepting her Woman of the Year Award last night, Gomez professed to feeling "lucky."

"Because I was very confused to feel like if I said too much, maybe I wasn't doing enough. Honestly, I couldn't be more grateful for the position I've been given in my career," she said. "I want people to know that I respect the platform so deeply, because I knew that I wanted to be a part of something great, and I wanted people to feel great, because I love people."

She pointed out that she's had a pretty incredible year creatively, despite her health troubles this year — something we have also pointed out. (Gomez also recently reportedly got back together with her erstwhile beau Justin Bieber.)

"I've never felt more proud to be a woman in the industry than I do today," she added.

Finally, Gomez dropped some real news: She said she might make an epic album next year. Here's hoping.

Watch Gomez's full acceptance speech, below.