Carly Rae Jepsen has always had a soft spot for theatre.
She has appeared in a Broadway version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” and as beauty school dropout Frenchy in Fox’s 2016 “Grease Live!” special after her 2012 hit single Call Me Possibly,” which spent nine straight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
So, when it came time to film a video for “Surrender My Heart,” the upbeat first single from her new album, “The Loneliest Time,” Jepsen wanted to pay respect to her musical heritage. The meta film was shot in two days at New York’s United Palace theatre in collaboration with technology manufacturer Lenovo. It stars famous dancer Isabella Boylston and “30 Rock” star Jane Krakowski as a comically self-absorbed director in charge of Jepsen’s new music video.
“We wanted to reflect a little of the pandemonium of show business, as well as the notion that every time that you put on a presentation like this, it feels like a dinky,” Jepsen explains. “This shoot was no exception. There were many moving elements, but it all came together in the end.”
Jepsen, 37, is also riding high on the viral popularity of the “Loneliest Time” title tune. Featuring fellow Canadian Rufus Wainwright, the song has burst on TikTok owing to its famous bridge. She chats to USA TODAY about it and more.
What was the inspiration for the song “Surrender My Heart?”
My first experience with mourning left me shaken when I lost my grandma. It was influencing how I wanted to love and feel and move through the world. The resulted in a lot of studying and going to see a therapist, who offered that lovely remark about “softening up” and “opening up.” And, rather than “toughening up” for the world, be prepared to feel the difficult things: the good and the terrible. Because you can’t block one thing without blocking everything else, and that’s no way to live.
So, when we turned that notion musically into a music video, the message of the song didn’t change, but it took on a more dramatic tone. We’ve got the large dresses, the big clothing, and the stage vibe. To me, standing on an empty stage performing a song is the essence of what it means to be vulnerable, and I wanted to highlight that in a major manner.
