Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21st 1985) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress, born and raised in Mission, British Columbia.
She is a multi-platinum Grammy nominated artist with a Diamond certified single, who has since released six studio albums, a b-sides album, and two extended-plays during her career.
Early life[]
Childhood[]
Jepsen when she was younger (circa 1990)
Carly Rae 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.
Carly playing guitar as a teenager (circa 2004)
Both Carly's parents and step-parents were teachers and had a passion for music; she had considered a career in music education as a secondary option because of them. Her father suggested she pursue a degree in teaching, work as a substitute, with 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 says she would sing around the house "to the point of annoyance." Carly described her parents as "dreamer-types; the kind of teachers to tell you that you could do anything you wanted to do".
Jepsen in her high school yearbook (circa 2004)
At age seven, with her father's guidance, Carly had been entered into a local talent show and came in first place, singing Eternal Flame by The Bangles. At age nine, she wrote her first song with her mother's encouragement. Later, at age seventeen, she was taught how to play guitar by her father.
Education[]
Jepsen attended Heritage Park Secondary School. Since a young age, she pursued her 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.
She applied to several 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, Carly instead realised her dream was to make a career out of songwriting and performing music, rather than acting and dancing, and relocated to western Vancouver to begin her career in music.
Post-education[]
After moving to Vancouver, 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, she 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, Carly 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. Carly 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, she sang lead vocals apart of Vancouver-based swing band, The Blue Morris 6.
2007: Canadian Idol[]
Jepsen appeared on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007, finishing as a finalist in third place. She considered this the best possible outcome in retrospect, "It was like all the exposure without the devilish contract at the end". Carly had been persuaded by her drama teacher to take part in the show, and performed her original song Sweet Talker during her audition.
Carly went onto say that 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, Carly would begin work on her debut album Tug of War, alongside songwriter and producer Ryan Stewart. Around this time, she was 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, Tug of War was released through a distribution deal with MapleMusic Recordings and Fontana North.
2009–2012: Call Me Maybe[]
Carly 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 signed a record deal with 604 Records, under her then-manager Jonathan Simkim. Her first release on the label would come in 2011 with Call Me Maybe, the lead single of the Curiosity 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. Carly was then signed to School Boy and Interscope Records in early 2012 in a global record deal. She released her worldwide debut album Kiss later that year. Throughout 2012 and 2013, she joined Justin Beiber on the worldwide Believe Tour.
2013–2014: Other projects[]
In 2013, Jepsen embarked on her first headlining tour and began work on her next album project in Los Angeles. During this time, Carly would decide to take an extended hiatus from releasing new music due the success of Call Me Maybe, with how much exposure to the song had brought about to general audiences, and the pressure that came with following it up. She instead pursued other projects, landing the lead role as Cinderella on Broadway.
Whilst performing on Broadway across early to mid 2014, Carly developed a now-discarded indie-folk album project in New York in act of rebellion against the expectations of Call Me Maybe. Both album projects Carly was working on at the time were scrapped, though would eventually pave the way for Emotion to follow, described by Jepsen as a better balance of what she wanted to achieve artistically.
2014–2016: Emotion[]
Development on her third studio album, Emotion, would take place between 2014 and 2015, with over 200 songs written in the process. She described the album as "80s pop with alternative productions", and enlisted the help of producers Dev Hynes, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Rostam, amongst others, to collaborate 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 gain a cult following and see mass critical acclaim, praised for its songwriting, production, blending of genres, and combination of pop and indie capabilities. Emotion is now often considered one of the best albums of its year and one of the best pop releases of all-time.
In August 2016, Carly released Emotion Side B, an extended-play featuring a collection of eight outtakes from the original writing sessions for the album. A standalone single, Cut to the Feeling, another outtake from Emotion, was released in 2017 in partnership with the movie Ballerina. At this time, Carly was hard at work on her next album project, titled Dedicated.
2016–2020: Dedicated[]
Carly's fourth studio album would initially be conceived as an 'understated disco' sound, in the form a scrapped project titled Disco Sweat. It was developed between late 2015 and mid 2016. Carly decided to discard the album, due to reasoning it was limiting her creative output, finding the disco influence too constraining . Eventually, she decided to instead "try everything" and draw inspiration from multiple decades of music, which Dedicated was the product of.
Jepsen wrote upwards of 200 songs for Dedicated between 2016 and early 2019, making use of a similar creative workflow to how Emotion was developed. The first single, Party For One, was released in November 2018. A series of additional 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.
Likewise with her previous project, Carly would release a collection of outtakes from the original Dedicated writing sessions in the form of Dedicated Side B, 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 was envisioned as a double release and is described as a "part two" to Dedicated.
2020–2022: The Loneliest Time[]
In March 2020, Carly started work on her next studio album, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially developed with Tavish Crowe during lockdown, it would later become known as The Loneliest Time—inspired by pandemic loneliness and isolation. "I wasn’t glossing over that it was the loneliest time of my life," she stated.
In writing The Loneliest Time, Carly was open to experimentation from the start, stating she was "less conscious" of decades, drawing upon a variety of different sonic influences, such as 80s pop, 70s folk, funk, and disco. Carly worked with several collaborators during its development, including the likes of Rostam, Patrik Berger, and John Hill, amongst others. Whilst working on the album, in March 2022, Carly begun her relationship with Cole M.G.N. The Loneliest Time was released on October 21st 2022.
2023: The Loveliest Time[]
In July 2023, Carly released The Loveliest Time as a companion project to The Loneliest Time. In a departure from the traditional "Side B" releases for Emotion and Dedicated, Carly instead opted to position The Loveliest Time as its own body of work—featuring outtakes from the original album, as well as newly workshopped and reworked material. The album was preceded by the lead single Shy Boy in June 2023.
2023–Present: Seventh studio album[]
Between 2023 and 2025, Carly has been working on her upcoming seventh studio album, with a release date yet to be determined. During this time, she has been writing new music with partner Cole M.G.N and collaborators John Hill, Danny L Harle, and A.G. Cook, amongst others. The album is expected to be indie-inspired in nature, with pop, folk, and jazz influences. On September 23rd 2024, Carly announced her engagement to fiancé Cole M.G.N. As of 2025, Carly is also writing a currently unknown musical for Broadway.
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)
- Seventh studio album (TBA)
Extended-plays[]
- Curiosity (2012)
- Emotion Side B (2016)
Relationships[]
2022–Present: Cole M.G.N.[]
Cole M.G.N is Carly Rae Jepsen's fiancé, as of 2024—he is a Grammy award winning American musician, producer, and songwriter. On March 27th 2022, he and Carly began their relationship. The pair were introduced after having made the song So Right together during the development of The Loneliest Time. In September 2024, the couple announced their engagement.
2020–2021: Nick Theodorakis[]
Nick Theodorakis is a photographer, visual effects artist, and video producer. He and Carly were in a relationship 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.
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.
2012–2013: Matthew Koma[]
Matthew Koma is an American singer-songwriter and producer; he and Carly were in a relationship between August 2012 and June 2013. Koma worked on multiple tracks for Kiss including This Kiss, Good Time, and Hurt So Good, amongst others. Following the end of the relationship, Carly wrote Emotion album tracks Boy Problems and When I Needed You.
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 Carly had 'back in the day' whilst touring Canada and making her planned second album, around 2010. She 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."
[]
Side B • 2020
2019
Side B • 2016
2015
2012
2012
2008