The one thing I love about music is that everyone has their own story to tell – the musician, the lyrics, the way the fans decipher them and also the way a song can also create a memory or a meaning to someone. That is what this new article is all about. Each fortnight, we will take a look at a different song and I will take you as a trip down memory lane as to what it means to me. Welcome to Music Memories.

Track: Call Me Maybe
Artist: Carly Rae Jepson
Original Release Date: 20th September 2011

 Sometimes there is a song that you cannot escape, no matter how much you want to, it is just not possible. I think one of the first songs that really went viral with social media was the song Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson. I am not saying that is fact but it is the first song I remember people doing a dance routine to it and everyone doing the same thing and then posting it online. Everything from people in the same family to American Football players, to talk show hosts. It went mental.

I found the song was actually ok (and a few years later I discovered that it was produced by Marianas Trench frontman Josh Ramsay) however, there was one particular activity that summer that completely put me off it for a long time.

It was the summer of 2012 and I was working at the summer camp for international students. It was my second year of being an activity leader and there was lots of new staff members. One of the activities that we used to do with the students was acting. The other leader I was with that day did not want them to do acting, instead wanted them to do singing and printed out the lyrics to Call Me Maybe and made the students sing it. It was a two hour lesson and in that time, the students only learnt how to sing the first verse and the chorus – imagine that on repeat for that amount of time. It was crazy. After that experience it took a long time for me to want to listen to that track ever again.

I don’t mind the track now and if it came on I will let it play but in 2012, the world was a very different place and there was no escaping that song.

Facts About Call Me Maybe

•   From her EP Curiosity
• The song was written by Jepsen and Tavish Crowe as a folk song, but its genre was modified to pop following the production by Josh Ramsay
• Nominated for two Grammy Awards, for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 55th Annual ceremony, but lost to “We Are Young” by Fun and the live performance of “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele, 
•  “Call Me Maybe” was named Song of the Year for 2012 by MTV
•  The song was the best-selling single worldwide in 2012, selling over 12 million copies in that year alone, and the best-selling single on the iTunes Store worldwide in 2012