Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" Viewed 1 Billion Times on YouTube

In five years, Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" has been streamed 1 billion times on YouTube

By Zach Johnson Oct 09, 2017 3:10 PMTags

"Call Me Maybe" is the little pop song that could.

Released on March 1, 2012, Carly Rae Jepsen's infectious debut became a worldwide smash. Buoyed by a viral lip dub video starring Justin Bieber, Big Time Rush, Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale, it hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, where it remained for nine consecutive weeks.

And on Sunday, "Call Me Maybe" surpassed the 1 billion views mark on YouTube. The video averages about 250,000 views per day, and at its peak, it got over 1.9 million views in one day.

"Call Me Maybe" was the lead single from Jepsen's 2012 album Kiss, which spawned three less popular hits: "Good Time (feat. Owl City)," "This Kiss" and "Tonight I'm Getting Over You." Jepsen released a follow-up album, E•MO•TION, in 2015. Led by the single "I Really Like You," the music video starring Tom Hanks just crossed over the 200 million views mark on YouTube.

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Jepsen released an EP, E•MO•TION: Side B, last year and has already written 80 songs for her next album. Though none of her singles have come close to the success of "Call Me Maybe," she's happy with her level of fame. "At the beginning [of recording E•MO•TION], whether I want to admit it or not, there was a very real pressure of having a song that was that big of a gift, this ginormous elephant in the room. Whenever I walked in it was like, 'How are we gonna top "Call Me Maybe?'" I was like, 'Stop saying that!'" she told Rookie in 2015. "I needed to at least be strong enough in my own sense that I wasn't there to talk about 'Call Me Maybe' or make another version of that. When I found people who were excited about letting that go and trying something new and letting that pressure dissipate, I knew I'd found the right people..."

While E•MO•TION was critically acclaimed, it was a commercial disappointment. But Jepsen wasn't trying to chase the success of the single that made her a worldwide star. "I feel quite happy with how the record's done, to be honest," she told BuzzFeed in 2015 after its release. "I don't really compare it to Kiss or whatever I'm gonna do next. That's not where my attention goes. I feel really lucky that people have received it so well and that it has sold any amount."