To celebrate CarlyRaeJepsen's latest album, revisit her 2012 smash hit 'Call Me Maybe.'
A cosign from a major artist has always been a surefire way to get an up-and-comer some much-needed attention. But in the case of’s “Call Me Maybe,” Justin Bieber didn’t just hop on the original and drop in a verse. The Bieb went bigger, gathering his famous friends for an on-camera sing-a-long that exploded on YouTube, inspired thousands of lip-dub videos and sent the song sky high.
The finished product sounded like nothing Jepsen had ever done before. Gone were the acoustic guitars and barely-there percussion, replaced by electric strings and a whomping beat. “I did have reservations,” she says. “I was like, ‘Is this a world I can play in? Does this feel like me still?’” Her reticence was undetectable on the song. You could hear the giddiness emanating from Jepsen as she sheepishly suggested to a guy she had just met that he should take her number and “call me, maybe.
The song was first released in September 2011 in Canada, and at the time, Jepsen had only a third-place finish on Canadian Idol and a debut album under her belt, making her far from a household name. “I was waitressing when ‘Call Me Maybe’ started rising,” she says.