This week, Carly Rae Jepsen arrived in California, the very place she lived in 2012 when she witnessed her massive single, “Call Me Maybe,” grow to incredible heights. With shows at Arlington Theatre (Santa Barbara), The Greek (Los Angeles), and The Greek (Berkeley), in a full circle moment, Jepsen returns to perform for her fans on “The So Nice Tour.” But a lot has changed since 2012.
Hailing from Canada, Jepsen is a singer-songwriter best known to the average pop layperson for one hit song. But she has since proved she has much more to offer, curating one of the most charming redemption arcs in music. She soared from forever-one-hit-wonder to cult superstar, burgeoning into a sword-wielding leader of lovers scorned. This was mainly due to her third studio release, the 1980’s inspired and critically revered dance-pop album Emotion, which helped popularize the recent trend of 80’s synth-pop dominating the recent charts. Notably, Jepsen’s genuine lyricism and unabashed yet not overly-tacky yearning sets her pop music apart from her successors to this day.
A gigantic cartoon moon appears on screen to greet us with “This Love Isn’t Crazy,” an intro to the first song. During “Too Much,” Jepsen appears onstage with a dancer on each side, slowly descending the stairs as she cheekily asks “am I bad for you?”