14 June 2012
That title may well have been deliberately pointed. Cheryl, in 2012 an A-list UK celebrity from her judge’s role on The X Factor, had changed one married name for another, then split up with the latter, and released this single using the former name. No doubt the air was thick with webloid snark and sidebar-of-shame sneeriness. Today she goes mononymously by her first name, which will suffice here too.
Another one-name superstar may well have been the uppermost Post-it note on the wall when brainstorming ‘Call My Name’: Rihanna, since the writer-producer here is Calvin Harris and the output is similar in musical hook and EDM-banger vibe to ‘We Found Love’. Cheryl does this adequately well, and Harris’s expensive production glitter is audible. However, despite its well-worked verses the flat chorus ultimately reduces ‘Call My Name’ to the formulaic filler you hear piped in Tesco while buying a frozen ready-made EDM banger to reheat at home. Cheryl to the checkout please.
