Carly Rae Jepsen is as bubbly as ever as she comes down for breakfast at Manhattan\u2019s Hotel Chelsea. She\u2019s one of those pop princesses, like Kylie Minogue, whose voice and demeanour remain unchanged whatever the situation. And she feels at home at this New York landmark where, last year, she married the musician and producer Cole MGN. That a wedding at the Chelsea would need to be kept to about 100 people was an immediate selling point. \u201cI loved that it was smaller,\u201d she says. \u201cIt felt big to me! I didn\u2019t even get time with all the people that were there.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re here to talk about her new album, though, which comes out 14 years after the song that made her world-famous. Born and raised in the city of Mission in British Columbia, Jepsen had come third on Canadian Idol in 2007, and then released a low-key folk album called Tug of War in 2008, before dropping Call Me Maybe four years later. It became the bestselling global single of 2012; her second album, Kiss, came out in the same year. Now, at the age of 40, she has six more studio albums under her belt. The latest, Day and Night, is her take on marriage and motherhood. And, in its own way \u2013 which is to say, a bit coy, a bit breathy \u2013 it might also be Jepsen\u2019s horniest album to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna spit my tea out,\u201d she says when I suggest this, laughing while steadying the cup in her hand. It turns out I\u2019m not the first to broach the subject. During a session with King Princess, Jepsen\u2019s fellow singer-songwriter called her a \u201cvery horny writer\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jepsen thought she\u2019d been subtle about it. \u201cI don\u2019t love it to be aggressively there,\u201d she says. \u201cHowever, I think that longing is really sexy \u2013 knowing what you want and being not afraid to say it out loud. I\u2019ve always found a real thrill in being the person who\u2019s advancing the thing; who\u2019s a couple steps ahead of the person they\u2019re chasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far back as Call Me Maybe, she points out, her music has contained a thread of exhilaration about being the pursuer. If lust is so prominent in Day and Night, it\u2019s because Jepsen and her husband fell in love during the album\u2019s creation. \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t kiss the producer\u2019 was a rule of mine,\u201d she says \u2013 and yet she did.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not the only time she\u2019s broken rules or confounded expectations. Say what you will about Call Me Maybe \u2013 and it\u2019s easier to appreciate the track when it\u2019s not blaring out from every storefront \u2013 but it demonstrated Jepsen\u2019s mastery of pure pop: melodic, catchy, with fiendishly clever lyrics Abba would be proud of: \u201cI get lovingly told that I\u2019m part Canadian, part Swedish,\u201d she says, delightedly.<\/p>\n
It sold more than 18m copies, reached No 1 in 19 countries, and won Jepsen a worldwide recording contract. It also helped Kiss, the album on which it appeared, reach the Top 10 in Australia, the UK, Canada and the US. Its follow-up, 2015\u2019s Emotion, was ecstatically reviewed.<\/p>\n
Jepsen lets rip at the 2024 Governors Ball in Queens, New York City. Photograph: Nina Westervelt\/Billboard\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
In virtually any other era, Jepsen might be filling stadiums. But changing tastes aside, the music scene has fragmented thanks to streaming and social media, and the charts can be topped by a song that many have never heard<\/a>. The one-time \u201cmegastar\u201d is now more likely to be described as an \u201cindie darling\u201d. How does she feel about her industry?<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit that I don\u2019t totally know or understand, or stay checked into,\u201d she says, \u201cand I don\u2019t know if that aloofness just comes from the fact that it\u2019s not super interesting to me.\u201d Maybe it\u2019s a survival tactic, she adds, \u201cbut the reality is, long ago I became aware of what my strategy would be, and I\u2019ve stuck to it. I knew around the time that I made Emotion that I was more excited about having a strong, small-but-mighty group, than I was about trying to be confused and feed the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n Now she knows who she is and who her fans are, but that knowledge didn\u2019t come overnight. \u201cI needed to take a second to figure out what it was that I liked about pop music to begin with, and what it was that I thought I had to contribute to it,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I went and did Cinderella, which was a really weird left turn.\u201d<\/p>\n Jepsen prepares for her lead turn in Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s Cinderella, 2014. Photograph: Bruce Glikas\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n