Remember back in 2012 when the song "Call Me Maybe" took over pop culture? Kids were making meme videos to the tune, morning-show hosts were dancing and singing to it before segments and, most important, its singer and songwriter popped up everywhere.
Carly Rae Jepsen's star rose quickly around the world a few years after she placed third on Canadian Idol, and it was mostly thanks to the savvy lyrics and earwormy chorus of "Call Me Maybe." Yet it was a novel enough single that many wrote Jepsen off as a one-hit wonder.
They were wrong. In the years since that song put her on the U.S. map, she's made career moves that have not only kept her in the public eye but also have proved to listeners that she has more to offer than a catchy, wordplay-packed chorus.
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In advance of the 30-year-old's Dallas show at House of Blues on Feb. 19, here are the qualities that are keeping her going long after "Call Me Maybe" wore out its welcome.
She's not afraid to try new things: Jepsen had a hit with the 2012 album Kiss, which featured "Call Me Maybe." She could have rush-released a follow-up just to keep her name on the charts and the minds of music's fickle public. But she decided to take a detour into musical theater, assuming the title role in Cinderella on Broadway for 12 weeks. She's since credited the change of scenery for inspiring her next set of recorded music.
Her music keeps getting better: When Jepsen did finally release new music, it came in the form of last year's Emotion, a consistently sparkling and appealing collection of '80s-inspired pop. Make no mistake, though — it's informed by the sass and attention to melody of that colorful decade's hits, but it doesn't duplicate the sound. Instead, Jepsen blends her traditional pop tunes with some of the most skilled pop producers in the biz.
She puts a twist on winning formulas: The music of Emotion takes Jepsen in plenty of new directions, such as the R&B-tinged slow jam "All That," which could get stuck in a listener's head as easily as "Call Me Maybe." But it's "I Really Like You" that truly demonstrates the artist's shrewdness. As her first hit did, "I Really Like You" brings together the novelty chorus with the viral lip-synching video — a clip that premiered with the song featured the singer's famous friends miming the words. Past Jepsen enthusiast Justin Bieber was one of them.
She lands high-profile, pop-culture gigs: Further cementing her place as a triple-threat performer, Jepsen took on the magnanimous role of Frenchy in Fox's megahit broadcast Grease Live! The producers even commissioned a new song for the musical to showcase her voice -- she belted "All I Need Is an Angel" before becoming Boyz II Men's "Beauty School Dropout" muse.
She makes herself relevant to all ages: In perhaps the most tongue-in- cheek gig of Jepsen's career so far, she's recorded an update of the Full House theme song (you know, the one that begins with "Whatever happened to predictability ...") for Netflix's upcoming continuation series Fuller House. That puts her on the minds of the older adults who watched the show back in the day and of the younger fans who've been raised on reruns. Here's hoping she'll give the audience a version when she plays Dallas.
