Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest music video for her new single “Now That I Found You,” dropped on Thursday, March 14, to absolutely no one's disappointment. The other way around, I am obsessed (The name of this blog IS “Pop! Goes the Cat” after all). With its campy aesthetic and references to Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (Directed by Blake Edwards,1961), Carly Rae Jepsen ushered in her new era with a gorgeous classic Hollywood aesthetic and GASP A SEE-THROUGH TRENCH COAT (yas mama). And yes, for those of you who don’t follow Carly Rae Jepsen’s music, she is the 2012 “Call Me Maybe” singer, but her music is so much more than that. Go get yourself some taste and listen to her music now, available on all streaming services.
The single is a synthpop gem with a catchy chorus (There’s nothing like this feeling, baby, now that I found you) and a pulsing beat, a great sound for the springtime as warmer weather approaches. The single premiered for the first time in Netflix’s Queer Eye season 3 trailer and some subsequent videos from the singer, where we saw CRJ for the first time in a short platinum blonde bob, which will hopefully be her look for this project because it looks SO gorgeous on her.
The video, in its pop culture-inspired and camp aesthetic, portrays the Canadian songstress as Holly Golightly, Hepburn’s iconic character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with a BIG cat obsession (relatable, to be honest). From finding and adopting the beautiful and internet-famous ginger cat Shrampton who stars in the video, to fully embracing her cat lady status, Carly Rae demonstrates that good things come to that wait, follow their passions and allow love to come into their lives. As the video progresses, her cat family continues growing and with it her feline obsession, taking us to seeing CRJ a gorgeous powder blue cat two-piece and down a catnip-induced psychedelic trip. Did I mention this video was super campy? There are cats, singing, dancing in front of a cat audience, product placement (Italian sports car manufacturer Abarth and the short video sharing social media app TikTok ), bright colors, and even more cats.
Catnip-induced psychedelic trip anybody?
Waking up from her pipe dream and realizing her cat is nowhere to be found, the singer goes on the hunt to find Shrampton, only going by his meows, similar to the final scene in the 1961 film (spot the parallelisms below). A deep fear of commitment and opening up to her romantic interest Paul Varjak, as well as living a double life, drives Holly to push people out of her life, including leaving the cat, aptly named Cat, out in the rainy streets of New York City. “People don’t belong to people. You want to put me in a cage”, she exclaims before finding out Paul was going to propose to her and realizing the ways she was sabotaging herself (one of my favorite moments in the whole movie). Cut to Hepburn’s character frantic search for the cat, finally finding him soaking wet in an alley; reunited with the cat and Paul, they embrace, and the film ends in a true romantic comedy fashion. Rae Jepsen gives the same treatment to the end of the music video, finally finding Shrampton in the arms of her love interest, Jimmy, played by producer Jimmy Loweree.
People do fall in love, and although nobody belongs to anyone, Carly Rae Jepsen’s music belongs at the top of pop music charts everywhere with her excellence pop hits. I can’t wait to see what else she brings for her new project due out sometime this year.