Vevo and Janet Jackson premiered a new episode of ‘Footnotes’ celebrating her classic hit ‘Someone to Call My Lover.’
The episode explores the song’s origins, viral resurgence, and just in time before Jackson is awarded the ICON Award at the 2025 American Music Awards on Monday, May 26.
Full story below…
The ‘Rhythm Nation’ singer gives fans behind-the-scenes insights on the creation and production of the track. The song blends two iconic samples, which are the guitar riff from America’s ‘Ventura Highway’ and a sped-up melody from Erik Satie’s ‘Gymnopédie No.1’.
The songstress didn’t recognize ‘Ventura Highway’ at first when Jimmy Jam played it for her, but she did recognize ‘Gymnopédie No.1’. She remembered hearing it in a commercial during her childhood.
She also explained that she sang the vocal melody over to the phone to Jam. As far as the lyrics, she expresses that it’s all about finding love/new love. She says:
“[It’s] really about the next person you want to be with and call yours.”
Elsewhere, she shares the fun fact that her son Eissa loves the song now and even falls asleep to it sometimes.
More than 20 years after its release, ‘Someone to Call My Lover’ is still making waves online by leading a 600% surge in daily streams. It also received a spot during the encore section of her 2024 tour, marking a rare return of the song to her live set.
Watch the full ‘Footnotes’ episode below:
Someone to call my baby daddy was her last top ten hit. After that Super Bowl halftime mess, she had been irrelevant since now.
Flop
These girls out here dancing like Shamar and selling their kids to stay relevant. Meanwhile the queens catalog does all her work