Carly Rae Jepsen - Q&A

On her new album, facing down loneliness, a decade of ‘Call Me Maybe,’ and why she’s ‘the grandma of TikTok’

- JODI GUGLIELMI

People keep asking Carly Rae Jepsen how she’s doing. After all, between the pandemic and the three-year gap since her last proper album, we haven’t heard much from the pop star lately. “It’s a loaded question,” she says, “and my answer has been complicated.” Jepsen admits she struggled to adjust to life at home during quarantine after years of nonstop touring and recording, and she suffered a family loss during the pandemic that led her to therapy to deal with her grief. “It caused a lot of contemplation,” she says. “Like, ‘Where am I? What decisions have I made to get here? Am I happy?’ Many of those hard questions you have to face one way or another.” From that time of self-reflection, she birthed her fifth album, The Loneliest Time. But now, on Zoom, sitting in front of a painting made by her aunt and uncle, the answer to the dreaded “How are you doing?” question is clear by the smile on her face. “I’m happy,” she says, later adding with a laugh, “I’m glad I went through those last couple of years — and I don’t want to do it again.”