Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer and songwriter born in 1985 in Mission, British Columbia, Canada. One of the more unlikely and genuinely fascinating trajectories in contemporary pop, she went from a third-place *Canadian Idol* finish to writing one of the best-selling singles of all time, then spent the following decade building a devoted cult following with a series of ambitious, critically acclaimed synth-pop albums that represent some of the most sophisticated pop songwriting of their era. Her debut *Tug Of War* (2008) was a folk-pop record with modest Canadian success. 'Call Me Maybe' (2011), a bubbly, irresistibly catchy pop song, was picked up by Justin Bieber and tweeted to his millions of followers, triggering a viral explosion that made it the best-selling single of 2012 worldwide, number one in over a dozen countries, and one of the most-streamed songs in early digital music history. The sudden global fame was both a springboard and a trap. Rather than chasing the 'Call Me Maybe' formula, Jepsen made the unexpected choice to pursue artistic ambition. *Emotion* (2015), produced partly with Dev Hynes and Ariel Rechtshaid, was a lush, maximalist synth-pop record that drew comparisons to the finest 1980s pop production — Phil Collins, Kate Bush, ABBA — while feeling entirely contemporary. Critically acclaimed but modestly commercial, it developed a fervent following that championed it as a misunderstood masterpiece. *Emotion Side B* (2016) released another 8 songs from the same sessions, equally acclaimed. *Dedicated* (2019) and *The Loneliest Time* (2022) continued her exploration of emotionally sophisticated, production-rich pop, the latter featuring a nine-minute extended title track disco odyssey. Jepsen's willingness to prioritise artistic integrity over commercial calculation has made her one of pop's most respected and beloved figures among discerning music fans.