HotStar: Carly Rae Jepsen

Hey bro – if you haven’t heard “Call Me Maybe” yet then, well, maybe you should go hang out with a girl or something.

Not to say the song is gender-specific because – man or woman – it’s tough to get the tune out of your head. But it’s certainly the “song of the summer” (The Washington Post) and club-going guys are manufacturing fake business cards that use the lyrics to appeal to the girls they’re trying to hit on. It’s a pretty big deal.

And if you don’t believe us, turn on the radio: As Gotye’s massive single starts to move down the charts, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” has become the No. 1 hit in multiple countries, from Australia to Germany to the U.K., with the United States not far behind.

Plus, clearly it’s a hit in Canada. As the rest of the world is introduced to this pop singer, Jepsen has maintained a level of stardom there since she was a runner-up on “Canadian Idol” about seven years ago. The song in question was already on Canadian radio last winter – but credit the Bieb for making it a worldwide hit.

“As the story goes, it started in Canada,” Jepsen’s agent Colin Lewis told Pollstar. “Justin was visiting his family in Stratford, Ontario, and he heard the song on the radio and said, ‘Who the hell is this?’ He dug deeper and discovered Carly Rae Jepsen. The next thing you know, Scooter (Braun, Bieber’s manager), is phoning Jonathan Simkin, her manager. The next thing you know it’s off to the races.”

Jepsen signed to Braun’s Schoolboy Records on Interscope (she was already signed to Simkin’s label in Canada). Then Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale and others did a makeshift YouTube video of them having a house party, lip-syncing to Jepsen’s song. That, plus some tweeting from the Bieb, and the song took off.

“I can’t say I’ve seen this very often in my career,” Lewis said.

Since then, the powers that be quietly worked together to put Jepsen on tour with Bieber in the fall, and that’s likely when one will see her next album drop plus all of those late-night talk show appearances. Meanwhile, expect Jepsen do to some radio shows, a slew of Canadian fairs and festivals, and a small run with The Wanted through Canada and at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn.