The received wisdom around Carly Rae Jepsen is that the Canadian pop star is a bit of a flop. After her 2012 single Call Me Maybe became the bestselling single of the 21st century by a female artist, her next album, 2015’s Emotion, failed to reach anywhere near those commercial heights. Nevertheless, its rapturous, sax-garnished sound inspired a cult following, particularly among LGBTQ+ pop fans. And when her more successful peers are at pains to tell us how miserable fame is, and tonight Jepsen greets 3,500 Londoners who scream back every word in between hits of poppers and basically receive her as if she were Madonna, it’s hard not to see her left-of-centre pop status as anything but a very plum gig. At any rate, it gives her a palpable sense of freedom that she shares abundantly.
