Image: Dylan Bow

The remarkable talent that is Sydney’s Carla Wehbe today returns with her new single ‘Love Me For Me’. She also today announces her debut EP, Half Past Nine, will be released on October 23.

‘Love Me For Me’ is the follow up to her February debut single, the 1980s inflected ‘Don’t Tell Me’ - without a doubt one of the greatest pop songs released in 2020. ‘Love Me For Me’ sees Wehbe explore a more intimate, laid back sound which still retains elements of her beloved 1980s sonic landscape.

The lyrics deal with a topic close to Wehbe’s heart - mental health and the desire that everyone has, to be loved simply for who they are. “Mental health hasn’t always been important to me, but the experiences I’ve gone through over the past few years have completely changed that, Wehbe says. “Having personally experienced anxiety and a struggle with mental health, I know how easy it is to not talk about it and fall into a dark place.”

Wehbe wrote the track with Kennedi Lykken (Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa) and it was produced by Boy Boy (CXLOE). “The writing process was a little different to other songs,” she says. “Kennedi, Boy Boy and I spoke for hours before we even thought about what we were going to write about, and after we talked about everything from growing up in religious families, to heartbreak, to feeling too different to fit in anywhere, the song pretty much wrote itself and half an hour later ‘Love Me For Me’ was born.”

Also released today is the song’s music video which was creatively directed and shot by Wehbe herself alongside a small team. As part of the process Wehbe reached out to an intriguing cross-section of people, all with their own personal battles and experiences, inviting them to tell their stories. “I want young people who are struggling with their mental health to know that they’re not alone and that it’s okay to talk about it,” she explains. “There was one common theme across all their stories - and it was that they ultimately just wanted to be loved for who they were. Not only did we create the video exactly how I dreamed, I also met some incredibly strong people in the process. Their inspirational stories have shown me the importance of mental health and awareness.”

Next up for Wehbe after the release of ‘Love Me For Me’ is her debut EP Half Past Nine on October 23. A four track release, joining ‘Don’t Tell Me’ and ‘Love Me For Me’ will be ‘Somebody Loves You’ and the title track ‘Half Past Nine’. Wehbe promises a seamless merging of current pop melodies with 80’s nostalgia on the EP and like everything she has released this year, it promises to be one of 2020’s pop highlight.

‘Love Me For Me’ is out now. Listen here.

To keep up with all things Carla Wehbe you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

To read more about Carla, grab your copy of Women In Pop issue 8, on sale now.