Wanna Feel Old? It’s the 10-Year Anniversary of “Call Me Maybe” | Nylon Magazine

Time? Famously one of the most fickle things out there. After everything that went down in 2020, the concept of “linear” time is actually laughable. 24 hours can feel like a week, months blur together in a fog, and every single day there’s a new anniversary of a pop culture moment that makes bones turn to dust upon reading. Speaking of bones turning into dust, it’s been 10 years since Carly Rae Jepsen burst onto the scene with “Call Me Maybe,” a giddy pop track about crushing hard.

“Call Me Maybe” is what we in the music community call a “hit.” It played on every radio station, every dance across the nation, and brought Jepsen a legion of haters as well as die-hard fans. The track essentially launched her career, and allowed Jepsen the creative freedom to bring her critically-acclaimed pop record Emotion to fruition. Jepsen celebrated the song’s 10-year anniversary with a refreshed, tongue-in-cheek cover in which she’s knitting, wearing a questionable crochet ensemble, and has full head of gray hair. You have to laugh (so you don’t cry)!

Jepsen also had some sweet words for her breakout hit, calling it “a lightning bolt to my little life.” She wrote about working as a waitress, and overhearing her customers mock her song, “Tug of War.” While they definitely weren’t fans, Jepsen noted that it was the first time she had heard someone else know her name or music.

“I skipped behind the bar and excitedly explained to my manager that, ‘These people outside KNOW ME! Okay they don’t know ME per se but they know my MUSIC! And they HATE IT but they KNOW IT and I’m kinda weirdly proud of that!’” Jepsen signed their receipt, they all had a laugh, and then three months later, “Call Me Maybe” hit the airwaves. And that’s showbiz, baby!

She continued: “Mostly I want to say thank you all for the joyous videos, silly dances, and wild nights together in different countries! You have opened my world and my heart with this adventure of a song and I could not be more grateful to you all. To Josh and Tavish who helped me pen this bad boy… who would have thunk it, hey? When lightning strikes feel lucky and feel grateful. I know I do every single day! Also I know my former boss is very relieved, because I was a TERRIBLE waitress.”