A full day before the much anticipated return to the Manila stage, we pledge a renewed allegiance and dedication to the one and only, Carly Rae Jepsen.
“I have an extra ticket for Carly Rae tonight, see you.”
Those were more or less the exact words sent by my dear friend, Thysz on the last licks of the drawling afternoon at work on September 14, 2015. The best part about that proposition was that it didn’t come with a question mark, but rather it was a rhetorical statement that assumed I would say yes. I would have been a fool to decline, so off I went, the very second the time ticked 6 o’ clock, of course.
“I couldn’t think of anyone else to experience this with than you,” she would say as I caught up with her and my breath on a pre-Grab time four years ago. What followed was a quick shoving of a mayo-laden hotdog sandwich down my throat and the beautiful, part gut-wrenching, part heart-coddling making the most of the night with what I filed as the song of my heart—as it still stands to be to this very day.
With a firm grasp on the pulse of an audience, indelibly leaving an imprint that will stay for a really, really, really, really, really, really long time, as well as with an ear tightly pressed on the walls of the world that are inundated with just about every form of music there is, Carly Rae Jepsen can very well be the historian of our times, dutifully recording and even interpreting our collective e•mo•tion’s into tangible creative pursuits as realized in the songs that form chapters of our stories or even function as a soundtrack to the imagined film versions of our lives. Needless to say, the Canadian pop singer that broke through a tepid consciousness with the now ubiquitous Call Me Maybe has cemented a searing permanence into the hearts of many, with strokes of sonorous brilliance in follow up albums such as the aforementioned 80s love child that was E•MO•TION (including its Side B release) and the decade and genre defiant Dedicated.
“We hope to be back soon, and I want you to know that I really, really, really, really like you,” she trailed off during her 2015 concert in Manila, and while it took a bit of a while to come back, her highly anticipated return couldn’t have a come at a better time. Don’t worry, we really, really, really, really like you still, if not much more than the last time.
Bringing her Dedicated Tour to Philippine shores, Carly Rae Jepsen is set to make this a party for more than just one. Sure, there are many things to expect, but before everything and anything else, there will be the music—the very same one that has sent many fans running at top speed with a beer held in one hand and the other firmly clutching their chests as they sing out the lyrics in full blast—starry, blurry and worry eyes closed, swaying to the rhythm and drip of sweat to an airtight dance floor in a tiny crack of space book-ended by pawnshops in downtown Cubao called Today x Future.
There is a Spotify playlist listing the general backbone of the Carly Rae Jepsen playlist, one that obviously features a strong selection of entries, which balances the bright and buoyant E•MO•TION with the slick lashes of maturity and tectonic-like shifts of strength from Dedicated, as well as of the lone bearer of 2012’s Kiss with the crowd-roaring standard, Call Me Maybe. As it stands, we will already have our hearts ripped in a full accounting of feelings resolved, unrequited, and simmering anew.
If there are any expectations to be made for Dedicated, it would be that we sincerely hope it would be the familiar fostering of community that has found a hand to hold, shoulder to lean (or cry) on, and body to dance with to the tune of Carly Rae Jepsen’s songs. Oh, and there has to be a sword to swish and brandish, because, of course.
Needless to say, my heart, soul, and body is ready for you, Carly Rae, patron saint of the longing and lovelorn, resolve and resilience.
Presented by Wilbros Live, The Dedicated Tour in Manila on October 23 at the New Frontier Theater, Quezon City.