Carly Rae Jepsen (CA)

About

Also known as: CRJ, Carly Rae Jespen, カーリー・レイ・ジェプセン

Few pop songs have had the kind of cultural moment that "Call Me Maybe" did in 2012, spending nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over 18 million copies worldwide. That ubiquitous hit put Carly Rae Jepsen on the map globally, landing her joint deals with Schoolboy Records and Interscope Records and cementing her as one of Canada's biggest pop exports. Her second album Kiss rode that wave, charting in the top ten across Australia, the UK, Canada and the US, and included a top ten duet with Owl City called "Good Time". What makes Jepsen's story genuinely interesting is what came after the blockbuster single. She pivoted hard into synth pop and 1980s influenced dance music with her third album Emotion in 2015, building a devoted cult following that critics took seriously. She has kept that momentum going through Dedicated in 2019 and The Loneliest Time in 2022, the latter featuring a title track collaboration with Rufus Wainwright. Along the way she also made her Broadway debut playing Cinderella for 12 weeks, proving she is more than a one hit wonder by a considerable distance.