Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 20, 1985) is a Canadian recording artist and singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. In 2007, she placed third in the fifth season of Canadian Idol, and was a part of the Canadian Idol Top 3 concert tour.
Shortly after competing on Idol, she signed to Fontana and MapleMusic, and released her debut album, Tug of War on September 30, 2008. Three years later, she released a new single, entitled “Call Me Maybe”, which was released by 604 Records, and was followed by the release of her debut extended play, Curiosity on February 14, 2012. “Call Me Maybe” was met with much success, reaching the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching the number 1 spot on the Canadian Hot 100. Jepsen has signed with Interscope Records, who will help “bring her music to the rest of the world”. “Call Me Maybe” is a top hit on YouTube with over 18 million views. She later released her single in the UK, which went to number 1 on the Official UK Singles Chart on the 8th April 2012.
Jepsen’s second album Curiosity was released on February 14, 2012. It was produced by Ryan Stewart and Kevin James Maher produced the track “Dear Julien”. On the same day as the release,Justin Bieber made the announcement on the MuchMusic program New Music Live that Jepsen has been signed to Schoolboy Records, the label run by Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun. The lead single, “Call Me Maybe”, from her second studio album Curiosity was released on September 21, 2011 and was produced by Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench and co-written by Jepsen, Ramsay and Tavish Crowe. “Call Me Maybe” is the first song by a Canadian artist to reach the top of the digital chart since Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in January 2010.
It is also only the 11th song by a Canadian artist to reach No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital download sales in 2005. The song has also peaked at #1 on Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100, being the 4th Canadian artist to do so, after Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend”, Nikki Yanofsky’s “I Believe”, and the Young Artists for Haiti version of “Wavin’ Flag”, originally by Canadian rapper K’naan. Jepsen is currently touring on the Shout it Out World Tour.
She is the opening act for the pop-rock trio Hanson. In February 2012, Jepsen visited Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun in Los Angeles, California, where she subsequently signed to Schoolboy Records and Interscope. Her music will still be distributed by 604 Records in Canada. On March 23, 2012, Jepsen made her first television debut on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, performing “Call Me Maybe” (with Jared Manierka on keys), later joined by Justin Bieber. In March 2012 it was reported that she had begun dating Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist and member of the Jimmy Kimmel Show house band Toshi Yanagi. Carly was also the first Canadian Idol contestant to enter the UK charts, when Call Me Maybe debuted at #1.
