Carly Rae Jepsen has a message for anyone who has ever tried to dance through a breakup: whatever you do, don’t leave them on the dance floor.
The pop star dropped her new single, “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor,” Friday, Aug. 7, giving fans their first taste of the “night” side of her upcoming double album, Day and Night. The 24-track record arrives Sept. 18 via Interscope Records.
The song takes the fear of abandonment and turns it into something made for a packed club. Jepsen wrote the track with producers CJ Baran and Arthur Besnainou, channeling the emotional rush of wanting someone to stay while the music keeps playing.
And because this is Carly Rae Jepsen, heartbreak comes with a hook you’ll probably be singing before the night is over.
Carly Rae Jepsen Wants You To Keep Dancing
Jepsen said the song was inspired in part by a recent trip to see ABBA Voyage in London.
“I’d just been recording in Sweden and then traveled to London to see ABBA Voyage. I came home with a mission of making my own ABBA-esque pop song – something with a perfect pop melody, but with some updated production. I wanted a hook that made you feel like you had to participate and sing along,” Jepsen said.
That mission comes through in “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor,” which pairs its emotional subject matter with a production built for movement. It marks a shift from the warm, left-field pop heard on the previously released “On Wires” and “After All.”
Those songs introduced the “day” half of Day and Night. Now, Jepsen is stepping into the album’s darker, dance-focused territory.
Alden Ehrenreich Gets Lost In The Music Video
The new single also comes with a music video directed by playwright, actor and screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris, marking his directorial debut.
Harris, best known for his Tony-nominated play Slave Play, puts Tony Award-winning actor Alden Ehrenreich at the center of the story. Ehrenreich, whose screen credits include Solo: A Star Wars Story and Oppenheimer, stars alongside Jepsen and Olivia Washington.
The video begins with Ehrenreich’s character on a gut-wrenching phone call with his lover, played by Washington. He eventually finds himself in a dance hall, where he starts moving for a sparse audience.
As Jepsen performs, Ehrenreich dances beneath disco balls and chandeliers, using the dance floor to work through the pain of a relationship that appears to be hanging by a thread.
It’s less about escaping heartbreak than surrendering to it.
Marc Crousillat, whose credits include Clairo’s “Terrapin” video directed by Ayo Edebiri, choreographed the performance.
Harris said the song resonated with his own experiences.
“With every song on Day and Night Carly, our last modern bard, has turned complex stories into a jaunty pop smash while also mining the joys and pains of loving and being loved as adult now,” Harris said. “I feel so lucky that Alden and Olivia were here to play a couple on the brink in the first of Carly’s night tracks, the song made me think of my relationship and so many others in this bleak moment in history who despite it all aren’t abandoning their partner on the dance floor but working it out together.”
What To Expect From Day And Night
“Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor” is the latest piece of Jepsen’s ambitious 24-track project, which splits its world between two distinct moods.
The “day” side leans into sun-soaked, left-field pop, while “night” moves toward dance music with a more maximalist edge.
“On Wires” and “After All” gave listeners their first glimpse at the former. Now, “Don’t Leave Me on the Dance Floor” signals that the lights are going down.
The early singles have already earned attention from critics. Clash described “On Wires” as “a moment of subtle, understated bravado,” while Consequence praised “After All” for leaving behind traditional pop polish in favor of a sound that feels more lived-in.
Pre-order or pre-save Day and Night here.
Carly Rae Jepsen Is Still In Her Pop Era
More than a decade after “Call Me Maybe” became an unavoidable global phenomenon, Jepsen has built a career around finding new ways to make pop feel personal.
Her 2012 breakthrough album, Kiss, produced the international smash “Call Me Maybe,” which topped charts in more than 47 countries and earned Jepsen two GRAMMY nominations.
Then came E•MO•TION in 2015, an album that has since become a modern pop touchstone with more than one billion streams worldwide. Her later projects, including Dedicated, The Loneliest Time and The Loveliest Time, continued to expand her sound without abandoning the melodic instincts that made her a pop favorite.
Day and Night arrives with Jepsen firmly in control of that evolution.
The album is set for release Sept. 18, and she’ll celebrate with her first live performance of 2026 when she headlines New York City’s All Things Go Festival on Sunday, Sept. 27.
Until then, there’s a dance floor waiting, and Jepsen has apparently decided that heartbreak sounds better with a disco ball overhead.