Carly Rae Jepsen has explained why she uses her middle name as part of her professional moniker.
During an appearance on the Therapuss podcast, host Jake Shane pointed out that the Call Me Maybe star called herself “Carly Jepsen” when she auditioned for Canadian Idol in 2007, but added her middle name during the competition.
Jepsen explained that the name change was the result of a simple admin error.
“OK, fun fact, do you want to know how Carly Rae was born? I’ve never told this story,” she began. “It is my full real name, Carly Rae Jepsen, and my mother’s always called me Carly Rae, but no one else did. Like, in high school, I was just Carly, Carly, Carly. And then on Canadian Idol, they said, ‘Write your full name,’ and I took it very literally and I wrote, ‘Carly Rae Jepsen.’ And the next day they said, ‘Carly Rae.'”
Rather than correcting producers, the Cut to the Feeling star decided Carly Rae Jepsen was a more memorable name for a contestant.
“I was like, ‘All right, maybe it’s more memorable’ – because it’s a competition – ‘maybe they’ll remember (me),'” she shared. “And then it stayed and it’s been that way ever since.”
Jepsen finished in third place, a position she feels grateful for because she had a launchpad for her singing career, yet the freedom to choose her own record deal.
“I had a pretty lucky run because I had the notoriety but no contract, so it was like a beautiful place to start,” she said, adding that she got a management team and record deal off the back of the show.
The Canadian singer-songwriter achieved breakthrough success with her second studio album Kiss and its 2011 lead single Call Me Maybe.
