VARIOUS: Singer Carly Rae Jepsen thanked fellow Canadian Justin Bieber for his support in helping her reach top of the charts in five countries for 'Call Me Maybe'

Record ID: 538643

  • Title: VARIOUS: Singer Carly Rae Jepsen thanked fellow Canadian Justin Bieber for his support in helping her reach top of the charts in five countries for 'Call Me Maybe'
  • Date: 24th April 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT - APRIL 19, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CARLY RAE JEPSEN, ON SECOND EP "CURIOSITY", SAYING: "I would be in the studio on my first album (EP) 'Tug of War', it was kind of folky, and it kind of represented my upbringing. The second album I really wanted to show this exploration, so 'Curiosity' felt like the perfect title. A
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2012 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA5EQUR27GVNPC35ADAFN6S1X2M
  • Story Text: Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen held on to the top spot of the British pop chart for a third week with her catchy single about a crush, "Call Me Maybe".
    She saw off competition from English teenager Conor Maynard, the Official Charts Company said on Sunday (April 22).
    The 26-year-old singer topped the music charts in five countries: Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
    She said even she could not imagine the success of the single.
    "It's amazing to me the success that 'Call Me Maybe' has had. I can't say that I pictured it would happen like this or for this particular song. You write a bunch and you don't know what's going to catch fire and what is going to be something you wrote to write it. I know that (co-writers) Josh (Ramsay) and Tavish (Crowe) and I all felt there was something really special about this song but I don't think I would've imagined this, how could you?" she told Reuters Television on Thursday (April 19).
    The single, which was first released in her native Canada, caught the ear of fellow Canadian Justin Bieber. He then tweeted the song to his 17.5 million followers and an additional boost was given by his girlfriend, the actress and singer Selena Gomez, and "High School Musical" star Ashley Tisdale. The three filmed themselves lip-syncing and dancing to the song and posted the video on YouTube, racking up a million views in 24 hours and became a trending topic on Twitter.
    The music video has racked up more than 33 million views on YouTube as of Monday (April 23).
    She is now Bieber's first signing to his Schoolboy Records/Interscope, the label he runs with his manager Scooter Braun.
    "Justin has mostly just been an amazing supporter. He seems to sort of like the music I'm doing and the artist that I am and hasn't said much other than I want to help you, kind of show your music outside of Canada," she said.
    The music video features Jepsen having fantasies about her muscly neighbour, only to find out at the end of the music video that he is gay.
    "He (music video director Ben Knechtel) knew I wanted to do something light and comical, because it's just supposed to be a light and fun sort of song and when he came up with that treatment, I giggled for an entire day just thinking 'How are we going to pull that off?' That sounds hilarious. But picking Holden Nowell, the lead guy, sort of... it drew some inspiration for us," she said.
    The singer placed third on Canadian Idol in 2007. She admitted it wasn't something she thought initially about doing, but is grateful for the publicity.
    "Idol was kind of the door that I didn't know would open. I had been trying many different avenues to kind of get noticed in Canada. I was playing Piccadilly pubs, I fronted a swing band for a little while, just doing every job in the book to support this passion of music. Then my high school drama teacher suggested I go and audition for Canadian Idol and I wasn't sure at first and it ended being the one that worked. I got my 15 minutes of Canadian fame and it was just enough to be able to put out a CD of original songs," she said.
    Her parents were fans of folk music, introducing a then young Jepsen to James Taylor and Van Morrison. It wasn't until she moved to the city that she began listening to more pop music including British band La Roux.
    "I would be in the studio on my first album 'Tug of War', it was kind of folky, and it kind of represented my upbringing. The second album I really wanted to show this exploration, so 'Curiosity' felt like the perfect title. And as well, it came from a song, which was an eight-month wrestling match. I've never worked so hard to actually figure out how a song was meant to end," she said.
    Jepsen takes pride in writing her own material, penning her first song, a protest song, when she was nine. It wasn't until she was 17 that she began to do it full time.
    "I've never really had someone write a song for me. Writing's kind of my favourite part of all this. I've done collaborations before. 'Call Me Maybe' for example was written by Tavish Crowe, Josh Ramsay, and myself. And sometimes it's good to get other cooks in the kitchen because they bring something to the table that you wouldn't have thought of. But I really like writing on my own too and in fact, when this is all over I have a far away dream of writing for other artists," she said.
    Jespen has scored two previous gold singles in Canada and received Juno Award nominations in 2010 for "Songwriter of the Year" and "Best New Artist".
    She has sold more than 200,000 singles in her home country and is signed to 604 Records in Canada.
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