‘I’ve never been more terrified!’ Carly Rae Jepsen on motherhood, stardom and her horniest album ever — SkimNews

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- Carly Rae Jepsen releases her new double album Day and Night, described as her take on marriage and motherhood and "potentially her horniest album to date" — with collaborator King Princess telling her to her face she's "a very horny writer."
- Jepsen, now 40, married musician/producer Cole MGN last year at NYC's Hotel Chelsea with about 100 guests, and became a mother in March, saying she "didn't always think [motherhood] was on the cards."
- "Call Me Maybe" (2012) sold more than 18 million copies and hit No. 1 in 19 countries, making Jepsen a global pop star; her 2015 follow-up Emotion was "ecstatically reviewed" and cemented her cult following.
- Jepsen developed her companion-album pattern after A&R rep John Ehmann suggested a "B-side" follow-up to Emotion — leading to Emotion: Side B (2016), Dedicated Side B (2020), and The Loveliest Time (2023).
- The new album's concept came from longtime guitarist Tavish Crowe, who pitched a sonic "walk through a house party" — incorporating influences from Minnie Riperton, Blossom Dearie, house music, and chillwave producer Bullion (who collaborated with her on 2024's "Rare").
- Jepsen is developing a Broadway adaptation with Lena Dunham of 10 Things I Hate About You, connected through mutual collaborator Jack Antonoff; Dunham previously used lyrics from Jepsen's "Guitar String/Wedding Ring" as an epigraph in her 2014 autobiography Not That Kind of Girl.
Why it matters: Fourteen years after "Call Me Maybe" sold 18 million copies and topped charts in 19 countries, Jepsen has consciously traded stadium ubiquity for a "small-but-mighty" cult audience — a path that turned her from one-hit-wonder meme into a six-album critical fixture. The Lena Dunham Broadway project marks a return to the theatrical detour she first attempted with 2014's *Cinderella*, suggesting Jepsen sees stage work as a parallel creative lane rather than a departure.
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