Carly Rae Jepsen talks 'Surrender My Heart,' going viral on TikTok after 'Call Me Maybe'

Carly Rae Jepsen has always been a theater kid at heart.

Since her 2012 breakout song "Call Me Maybe," which spent nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, she has starred in a Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" and played beauty school dropout Frenchy in Fox's 2016 "Grease Live!" special.

So when it came time to shoot a video for "Surrender My Heart" – the ebullient opening track of her latest album, "The Loneliest Time" – Jepsen wanted to pay homage to her musical roots. Created in partnership with technology brand Lenovo, the meta clip was shot in two days at New York’s United Palace theater. It features renowned ballerina Isabella Boylston and "30 Rock" favorite Jane Krakowski, playing a hilariously self-absorbed director overseeing Jepsen's new video.

"We wanted to capture a little of the chaos of show business, and the feeling that every time you put on a performance like this, it feels like a mini-miracle," Jepsen says. "This shoot was no different. We had a lot of moving parts, but it all came together in the end."

In addition to "Surrender" Jepsen, 37, is riding high on the viral success of the "Loneliest Time" title track. Featuring fellow Canadian Rufus Wainwright, the song has exploded on TikTok thanks to its memorable bridge. She talks to USA TODAY about that and more.

Question: What inspired the song "Surrender My Heart?" 

Answer: When I lost my grandmother, I felt really shook by my first experience with grief. It was affecting how I wanted to love and feel and move through the world. The aftermath of that was a lot of learning and going to see a therapist, who said that beautiful line of "soften up" and "open up." And rather than "toughen up" for the world, be ready to feel the hard things: the good things, the bad. Because you can't block one out and not block it all out, and that's no way to live.

So when we transformed that concept musically into a music video, it's not that the meaning of the song goes away, but it took on a more theatrical nature. We've got the big outfits, the big clothes and the feeling of the stage. There is something about being on an empty stage singing a song that is the epitome of what it means to feel vulnerable to me, and I wanted to showcase that in a big way.

One particular lyric from "The Loneliest Time" – "I'm coming back for you, baby" – has taken off on TikTok. What surprised you most about that song's success? 

I'm starting to learn in my career – like decades in, now – that when you're not overthinking, that ends up being the thing that connects. This was a very joyful moment of writing with Nate Cyphert and Kyle Shearer in the studio. I was talking about an idea, like, "There should be some sort of spoken monologue-y part about what it is to go back for love that was once lost! 'What happened was, we reached the moon!'" It was just one take of me trying to explain what I wanted. Kyle was recording at the time, and they were like, "That was it!"

Now to fast forward and see that it's got a TikTok (trend) – the hilarity of that is that I am, like, a grandma. I do not understand TikTok at all. I'm learning more about it, but it's still a new toy for me to play with.

What does Rufus make of its popularity? 

We had a conversation about TikTok, and the way he phrased it was very cute. He was like, "You and me, we're just two grandmas going viral!" And I was like, "It's true, you're not wrong!" Just getting him on the song was a whole campaign of mine: gently reaching out, having him come over to my house and hearing his voice on it for the first time. That's when we both started to get excited. The juxtaposition of our voices together had something to it, with his deep vibrato and the melancholy to that, and then I have a brighter voice. I love mixing light and dark in general.

You recently reposted Reese Witherspoon's "Loneliest Time" video. Do you have another favorite version of the trend? 

One of my favorites is the guy who did the (video) about the half-empty LaCroix. The whole thing is slightly reminiscent of "Call Me Maybe" times when friends would send me little things. I'm feeling a bit of that energy around this TikTok moment, for sure. It's not so much the celebrity ones that blow my mind – and this is what I loved about "Call Me Maybe," too – it's more the creativity of just any person who takes the time to make it.

You've said that you were more nervous to release this new album than any of your previous records. Now that it's been out in the world for a couple of months, how are you feeling? 

It's been one of the coolest experiences to put out an album at this age. I feel like I know myself better than I ever have before, but I'm still OK with what I'm discovering and don't know too. This album was a bit of both things, and that's probably why it felt really scary to share. It's not like I have all the answers figured out about love or anything close to that. I'm just experiencing it in real time and documenting it as I go.

You released a song, "It's Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries," in 2020. Would you ever consider a full holiday album? 

I definitely have ideas. I want to travel one year and do a writers' camp with all my favorite people, but just for Christmas. Take everyone somewhere, like, "Let's go to Switzerland and make a Christmas album in the middle of summer!" I think that sounds really fun.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carly Rae Jepsen talks 'Surrender My Heart' video, viral TikTok song