Carly Rae Jepsen

## **Carly Rae Jepsen***Canadian musician*

**Carly Rae Jepsen** (born November 21st 1985) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress, born and raised in Mission, British Columbia.

Jepsen began writing music when she was a teenager, and has so far released six studio albums, a b-sides album, and two extended-plays during her career.

Jepsen got her start in 2007, after placing third on Canadian Idol, and has since gone onto become a multi-platinum Grammy nominated artist, boasting mass critical acclaim for her work and achieving a Diamond certified single.

## **Early life**

#### **Childhood**

Jepsen was born to Alexandra Lanzarotta and Larry Jepsen in 1985, being the second of their three children; the eldest, Colin Jepsen (born: July 8, 1983), and the youngest, Katie Jepsen (born: June 25, 1992).

Her parents divorced at a young age, but remained in contact to raise her and her siblings. Jepsen says she would live between both households and considers herself fortunate for the position she was in.

Both Jepsen's parents and step-parents had a passion for music and each were teachers; Jepsen had considered a career in music education as a second option because of them. Jepsen's father suggested she should get a degree in teaching, work as a substitute, and pursue music on the side - to which, Carly described as 'backwards thinking.'

Jepsen states her family was extremely musical and had encouraged her interest in the subject since she was young - she described them as "dreamer-type parents; the kind of teachers to tell you that you could do anything you wanted to do". Jepsen says, when she was younger, she would sing all around the house, 'to the point of annoyance.'

With her father's guidance, she had been entered into a local talent show and came in first place, at age seven. At age nine, she wrote her first song, titled Cutting Down the Big Tree, with her mother's encouragement. Later, at age 17, Jepsen would be taught how to play guitar by her father.

#### **Education**

Jepsen attended Heritage Park Secondary School and since a young age pursued a passion of musical theatre and singing by appearing in student productions of Annie, Grease, and The Wiz, playing the respective lead roles. Jepsen graduated from Heritage Park Secondary School in 2004.

Jepsen applied to music-related programs for her later education, including those at Capilano University and the University of British Columbia. Her high school drama teacher, Beverly Holmes, persuaded her to audition for the Canadian College of Performing Arts in British Columbia, where she was one of only 25 female students to be enrolled into the program.

Part-way through her course at the Canadian College of Performing Arts, Jepsen realised her desire of making a career out of songwriting and performing music rather than acting and dancing, and instead relocated to western Vancouver to begin her career in music.

#### **Post-education**

After moving, Jepsen worked several part-time jobs to support of career ambitions, describing herself as 'on the edge of poverty' but stated it was 'the happiest time in her life'; she slept on a pull-out sofa, wrote songs in her downtime with her guitar, and performed multiple gigs around the city. Whilst bartending at the Media Club, Jepsen once requested an extra late shift to see Sia perform, which would come prior to their later collaboration on Boy Problems in 2015. Whilst living in Vancouver, Jepsen would begin her musical career from 2007 onwards with her appearance on Canadian Idol that year.

## **Career**

#### **2004 - 2006**: Early career

Jepsen independently released her first musical project in 2004 as a teenager, a short promotional extended-play titled Dear You (2004). Jepsen states Dear You was the first 'proper' song she had written, about a boy at her high school, and had been taught by her father how to play the guitar whilst writing it.

Around the same time, Jepsen sang lead vocals apart of Vancouver-based swing band, The Blue Morris 6, who would release their first and only album, Swing Me, Blues Me in 2006, prior to Jepsen's appearance on Canadian Idol the following year.

#### **2007**: Canadian Idol

Jepsen appeared on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007, finishing as a finalist in third place. Jepsen considered this the best possible outcome in retrospect, 'it was like all the exposure without the devilish contract at the end'. Jepsen had been persuaded by her drama teacher to take part in the show, and had performed her original song Sweet Talker during her audition.

Jepsen states appearing on the show was a great opportunity, that allowed her networking connections and publicity across Canada, though was unsatisfied with simply playing cover songs and appearing on television - she explained, 'it wasn’t representing the type of music I planned on making. I write songs and I have a style in mind.'

#### **2008**: Tug of War

After Canadian Idol, Jepsen would begin work on her debut album Tug of War (2008) alongside songwriter and producer Ryan Stewart. Around this time, Jepsen would be signed as an independent artist under Simkin Artist Management and Dexter Entertainment, both of whom oversaw the release of the album. Jepsen's official debut single, Sunshine On My Shoulders, a cover of John Denver's 1971 track, was released in June 2008. In September 2008, Jepsen would release her debut album, Tug of War (2008), through a distribution deal with MapleMusic Recordings and Fontana North.

#### **2009 - 2012**: Call Me Maybe

Jepsen would immediately begin writing new material soon after the release of previous album, with her next project beginning to take shape throughout 2010. That year, Jepsen was signed to 604 Records under her then-manager of two years, Jonathan Simkim. Jepsen's first release on the label would come in 2011 with Call Me Maybe, the lead single of the Curiosity (2012) extended-play, proceeding its release later in February 2012.

Call Me Maybe saw Jepsen's breakthrough success worldwide, later becoming a US Platinum Certified single for selling over 20 million copies in the country and topping over twenty charts worldwide. To distribute the song globally, Jepsen was signed to School Boy and Interscope Records in early 2012 and, under the label, released her worldwide debut album Kiss (2012) later that year.

#### **2013 - 2014**: Other projects

Throughout 2013, Jepsen would embark on her first headlining tour and begin work on her next album project in Los Angeles. During this time, Jepsen would decide to take an extended hiatus from releasing new music due the success of Call Me Maybe, with the amount the song had exposed her to general audiences, along with the pressure that came with following it up.

In act of rebellion against the expectations Call Me Maybe had set for her, Jepsen developed an indie-folk album project in New York titled Eternal Summer, whilst performing as Cinderella on Broadway across early to mid 2014. Both album projects Jepsen had been working on at the time were scrapped, though would eventually pave the way for Emotion (2015) to follow, described by Jepsen as a better balance of what she wanted to achieve artistically.

#### **2014 - 2016**: Emotion

Development on Jepsen's third studio album, Emotion, would take place between 2014 and 2015, with over 200 songs written in the process, according to Jepsen. She describes the album as '80s pop with alternative productions', and enlisted the help of producers Devonté Hynes, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Rostam Batmanglij, amongst others, to collaborate on the project with.

The first single from the album, I Really Like You, was released in March 2015, followed by the album later across June and August of that year. Although seeing little commercial success, the album would go onto garner a cult following and see mass critical acclaim, praised for its song-writing, production, blending of genres, and combination of pop and indie capabilities. Emotion is commonly referred to as one of the best album releases of its year and one of the best pop releases of all-time.

In August 2016, Jepsen released Emotion Side B, an extended-play featuring a collection of eight outtakes from the original writing sessions for Emotion. A standalone single, Cut to the Feeling, also written for Emotion, was released in 2017. Around this time is when Jepsen would begin work on her next album project, Dedicated (2019).

#### **2016 - 2020**: Dedicated

Jepsen's fourth studio album would initially be conceived as an 'understated disco' sound, in the form of Disco Sweat, the scrapped album project developed between late 2015 and mid 2016. Jepsen decided to discard the album due to reasoning it was limiting her creative output, finding the disco influence too constraining - eventually, Jepsen decided to 'try everything' and draw inspiration from multiple decades of music instead, which Dedicated (2019) was the product of.

Jepsen wrote upwards of 200 songs for Dedicated between mid 2016 and early 2019, making use of a similar creative workflow to how Emotion (2015) was developed. The first glimpse of which, Party For One, was released in November 2018 as the album's lead single; a series of additonal singles would be released prior the album, including Now That I Found You and Julien. Dedicated was released worldwide on May 17th 2019 and distributed under 604 Records, School Boy, and Interscope Records - Jepsen's first simultaneous global release.

Likewise with her previous project, Jepsen would release a collection of outtakes from the original Dedicated writing sessions in the form of Dedicated Side B (2020), celebrating the album's first anniversary in May 2020. Dedicated Side B was released as a full-length album, featuring an extended fourteen song track listing. Although released as a b-side, the album is described as a 'part two' to Dedicated by Jepsen, who states the project was always envisioned as a double release, following in the footsteps of Emotion Side B (2016).

#### **2020 - 2022**: The Loneliest Time

Since the beginning of quarantine in March 2020, Jepsen began work on her next studio album, The Loneliest Time, which would later be released on October 21st 2022. Initially developed with Tavish Crowe during lockdown, the pair wrote and produced a series of demo tracks for the project together. Since, Jepsen worked with collaborators including the likes of Rostam, Patrik Berger, and John Hill, amongst others. The album's first single, Western Wind, was released on May 6th 2022.

## **Discography**

#### **Studio albums**

* *Tug of War (2008)*
* *Kiss (2012)*
* *Emotion (2015)*
* *Dedicated (2019)*
* *Dedicated Side B (2020)*
* *The Loneliest Time (2022)*
* *The Loveliest Time (2023)*

#### **Extended-plays**

* *Curiosity (2012)*
* *EMOTION SIDE B (2016)*

## **Relationships**

#### **2022 - present**: Cole Marsden Greif-Neill

Cole Marsden Greif-Neill, known professionally as Cole M.G.N., is a Grammy award winning American musician, producer, and songwriter. He and Jepsen are in a relationship as of 2022.

#### **2020 - 2021**: Nick Theodorakis

Nick Theodorakis is a photographer, visual effects artist, and video producer. He and Carly dated between 2020 and 2021 during the development of The Loneliest Time.

#### **2017 - 2019**: James Flannigan

James Flannigan is a British musician and producer who dated Jepsen between 2017 and 2019 during the development of Dedicated. They collaborated on multiple songs together, such as No Drug Like Me and Real Love. Many Dedicated tracks were inspired by Jepsen's relationship with Flannigan, such as the unreleased title track.

#### **2015 - 2016**: David Larkins

David Larkins is an American cinematographer and photographer. His relationship with Jepsen spanned across 2015 and 2016 during the Emotion era. During that time, he filmed the music video for Run Away With Me. Multiple Dedicated tracks were written about Larkin's relationship with Jepsen, such as For Sure. He and Carly are still friends to this day and have collaborated on multiple projects, such as the vertical video for Party For One and an unreleased music video for Trouble in the Streets.

#### **2012 - 2013**: Matthew Koma

Matthew Koma is an American singer-songwriter and producer - he and Carly dated between August 2012 and June 2013. Koma worked on multiple tracks for Kiss including This Kiss, Good Time, and Hurt So Good, amongst others. After breaking up, Jepsen wrote Emotion album tracks Boy Problems and When I Needed You about her relationship with Koma.

#### **2011 - 2012**: Jordi Ashworth

Jordi Ashworth is a Canadian architect who dated Carly between 2011 and 2012. Carly dedicated Call Me Maybe to him; he also inspired her to write the Emotion track Black Heart about their relationship.

#### **Circa 2010**: Julien

Julien was the name of a French-Canadian ex-boyfriend Jepsen had 'back in the day' whilst touring Canada, during the development of her planned second album Curiosity, around 2010. Jepsen thought Julien had a 'musical name' and had been trying to write it into songs since they met - the first known iteration of this idea was Dear Julien. For Dedicated, Carly revisited the concept to create the song Julien, which she described as less about a specific person and more so a metaphor for 'everlasting fantastical love' that 'follows you for the rest of your life.'

## **Navigation**

**The Loveliest Time** • *2023***The Loneliest Time** • *2022***Dedicated
Side B** • *2020***Dedicated**
*2019***Emotion
Side B** • *2016***Emotion**
*2015***Kiss**
*2012***Curiosity**
*2012***Tug of War**
*2008*