As the locomotion leading up to the release of Day and Night continues, Carly Rae Jepsen keeps the singles and videos coming. And her latest, fresh on the heels of “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor” (directed by none other than Jeremy O. Harris), is “Motivation” (not to be confused with Normani’s 2019 hit of the same name). A song that, as the fast-paced, beat-thumping sound immediately indicates, is part of the Night side of the record, thus providing listeners with some “equilibrium” in terms of unveiling two songs from Day and two songs from Night before the double album comes out. But while “Motivation” might initially come across as a frothy, danceable ditty (co-produced by Cole M.G.N. [a.k.a. Jepsen’s husband] and Kyle Shearer), Jepsen has plenty of anger baked into the lyrics when it comes to defending her right to not only be who she is without judgment, but to choose a family that won’t judge her as she goes through the journey that is her life. Undoubtedly, Jepsen has chosen many of her family members, particularly with regard to cultivating a “touring family”/“creative work family.”
Not to say that Jepsen isn’t happy with her “blood family.” And yet, while Jepsen’s relationship with her parents and stepparents has never been conveyed as “strained” or “tense” (in fact, it’s usually been presented as very supportive), there are some lyrics in “Motivation” that feel directed at a blood relative who never quite “got” Jepsen. Or made her feel safe enough to want to stick around. Case in point, the second verse, during which she sings, “I’m in Paris when we talk, I don’t tell you/But you’re really happy that I called/Your neighbors saw me on TV” and “Always a tightrope/Being me and pleasing you/Was I a born perfectionist or were you the one who always was hanging around/To tell me how I fucked up again royally?”
As for mentioning being in Paris in the song, it seems that’s the sole reason for why the Caio Vieira-directed video (side note: Vieira also directed “On Wires,” the first single released from Day) takes place there. Though, per a press release from Universal Music, one reason for homing in on a city like Paris as the backdrop was to “bring together a vibrant cross-section of individuals to celebrate the connection that families—be they birth or chosen—share.” As for Jepsen, she’s got both to toggle between, which is convenient for when she might be beefing with one faction or the other.
Though it seems less likely she would get into as much “tension” with her chosen family compared to her blood family, remarking on the inspiration behind the song, “I was thinking about my family and how passionate we all are, how we have such high expectations of each other. ‘Motivation’ became my way of making peace with all of that—it’s our little family anthem that recognizes all the complicated parts, but I hope it can be an anthem for chosen families as well.” And that’s clearly the intent behind the aforementioned “cross-section” of people shown “living and loving” throughout various parts of Paris, some more familiar (e.g., the Pont de Bir-Hakeim and the Jardin des Tuileries) to the untrained eye than others (e.g., Rue Carducci).
Wanting to share her new revelations on the matter of family after recently having a child of her own, the Universal Music press release was also sure to add that Jepsen’s intent behind “Motivation” is as a “reflection on inherited patterns and the cost of becoming yourself, set against the hypnotic and glittering grandeur of a house-inspired backdrop.” And yes, it’s very house-y indeed. More to the point, it channels a lot of the same sonic vibes as most early 90s dance music (think: singles from Snap!, La Bouche and the like). Not to mention a dash of Madonna’s musical DNA being present, including her own 1989 ode to family, “Keep It Together.” To be sure, Madonna, for all her love of la famiglia in the Italian traditional sense of the word, has been plenty demonstrative of how chosen family has shaped and saved her over the years (on a related side note, had “Motivation” existed in 1990/1991, it could have easily soundtracked a montage of scenes parading Madonna and her close-knit group of dancers in Truth or Dare).
With a chorus that can read as equal parts threat and unapologetic declaration, Jepsen sings, “Keep me in a box like that, I’ll travel across the world without you/We go hard, we go hard/Give me that motivation, I’m gonna make a world without you.” As if to emphasize that point, Vieira and Jepsen have people doing all kinds of weird, “defiant” shit—from pulling up their dress over a subway grate, Marilyn-style, to doing push-ups against the background of a traffic-laden street. And then, of course, there’s the appearance by Gigi Goode, meant to be a strong selling point for the theme of the song because she was on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and it’s no secret that those of the LGBTQIA+ community are, even to this day, frequently left no option but to form a chosen family when their own doesn’t quite accept or “get” them.
Still, Jepsen leaves plenty of room for “traditional” family snapshots, showing her own as she sits on a couch with her newborn next to Cole M.G.N. Not to mention concluding the video with the image of her holding her baby while propped up against the pillowed headboard of a bed as the babbling vocals of her four-year-old niece, Ivy Rae Whitlock, interject an outro that includes the phrases, “Auntie Carly” and “Peekaboo.” And with that final word, Vieira concludes the video by holding on a close-up shot of the baby’s hand in Jepsen’s—a symbol of conventional family, in the end. Nonetheless, Jepsen at least exhibits the kind of advocacy and allyship for so-called different families that is just as important as it ever has been amidst the current political landscape.
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