Call Me Baby

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"Call Me Baby" is a song recorded by South Korean boy band Exo for their second studio album Exodus. It was released in Korean and Chinese versions by S.M. Entertainment on March 27, 2015 as the lead single for the album. The song was a commercial success, having sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide.

Video Call Me Baby

Release and promotion

To promote the release of Exodus, a series of videos referred to as "Pathcode", featuring one Exo member each and are set in various locations, were released on YouTube. The first letters of these locations' names--Colorado, Arizona, London, Lyon, Marseille, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Almaty, Berlin and Yunnan--would spell "Call Me Baby", the title of the album's lead single. It was released digitally on March 27, 2015, three days ahead of the album. Exo began performing the song on South Korean music TV shows on April 2, 2015. After the press conference for the album's release, member Tao was absent from promotional activities and would later withdraw from the group, making "Call Me Baby" the last Exo single he participated in.

Maps Call Me Baby

Music video

The Korean and Chinese music videos for "Call Me Baby" were released on March 30, 2015. The videos mainly feature Exo's performances of the song at a warehouse setting and against a white backdrop, and were filmed in a one shot style. The Korean version later became the third most-watched K-pop music video on YouTube in 2015.

Appreciation - Era Appreciation - Call Me Baby | Aeriverse

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Reception

Writing for Billboard, Jeff Benjamin commented that while "Call Me Baby" "sounds wholly inspired by the late '90s/early '00s sound", Exo "is not only bringing in the nostalgic feel, but doing it at a 200 percent intensity." The song reached number two on both South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard World Digital Songs chart. It also entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 98, making Exo the second South Korean artist, after Psy, to appear on the chart. "Call Me Baby" went on to win first place 18 times in total on South Korean music TV shows, the all-time second highest number of wins. Billboard ranked the song at number 9 on their list of top 20 K-pop songs of 2015.