Australian singer-songwriter, Starley Hope, has been on rotation for a long time now with her song “Call On Me”. The track was originally released last year, but when Ryan Ribeck came along to add a little spice to the song by remixing it, the track finally took off.
It’s the remix that I’d been hearing all this time, but I never realized there was an original version that preceded this. Surprisingly, the original version already has all the elements (like the whistle) you would probably think were added to create the house version, but the main thing that got replaced is the guitar in the beginning. Also, a few bits and pieces of the song got cut in the editing room.
The original version is more what you would expect from a singer-songwriter, but both versions are actually really nice. The only difference is that the remix has got over 43 million views more on YouTube than the original. The power of a DJ, right? LOL.
In the remix, I hadn’t actually noticed that it was a female singer on the track. I actually thought it was a male singer. The vocal just sounded a bit pitched and seemed to feature effects to me. I do think it’s had some digital treatment compared to its original version, but actually not at all as much as I thought.
Before “Call On Me”, Starley, had some success featuring on Mobb Odd’s “Into You”, but that didn’t lead to a big break. She was actually on the verge of giving up on music. In fact, that’s what made her write the song. Once the song was out, it became a DJs favorite to remix and once the remixes came, this completely unknown artist attracted 7 million streams on Spotify overnight.
She’s currently planning to continue touring and releasing new music, with an album release planned sometime this year. I’m hoping it’ll be soon and I’m hoping it’ll also include some remixes, ‘cos apparently that was a winning formula.
Even though the success story is a great one, I haven’t really seen many people manage to really build a career of their own after such a successful remix. It wasn’t all that long ago that Imany had a similar situation, but her own follow up singles – without the help of the DJs – has not managed to reach the same grand audience. Let’s hope Starley can do it.
