Do we like Carly Rae Jepsen?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean harm record and real, repeated support for LGBTQ+ people, with a thin public record on the planet and politics.
Carly Rae Jepsen grew up in Mission, British Columbia, an hour or so from Vancouver. She landed third on Canadian Idol at 21, singing with an acoustic guitar. Before that she was a barista, bartender and waitress, and she studied musical theatre.
Her big break was Call Me Maybe in 2012, which went to No. 1 in 37 countries and sold more than nine million copies. She won three Junos, then spent the decade after that being the pop cult hero everyone's gay mate insists you stream. It's a rare career: huge hit, then a cooler second act built on loyal fans.
The harm check comes up clean. Nothing turned up of her pushing harm against anyone, and no questionable company or projects. The gap is that she rarely talks about climate, health or politics in the sources I found, so this is a pass on a quiet record, not a loud one.
On LGBTQ+ people she has acted at a cost. In 2013 she pulled out of the Boy Scouts of America's national jamboree over its anti-gay policies, tweeting that as an artist who believes in equality she would not take part. She also said she has always supported the LGBT community on a global level.
The support kept going. In 2019 she called being a gay icon a gift of her career and said she's committed to LGBTQ causes. That year's tour put a dollar from each ticket to Crisis Text Line, with one San Francisco show benefiting The Trevor Project.
As for how she treats people, Vice's 2015 profile found her friendly and chatty with a waitress. Producer Dev Hynes called her “super chill and so relaxed and so fun.” The only legal tangle was a 2014 report that she settled a lawsuit from a singer who claimed her Owl City duet Good Time copied her song.