The chants began late in Friday night’s game, a chorus emerging from dozens lined up in the lower concourse of Nationals Park.

Kyle Finnegan was on the mound, and the Washington Nationals were one strike away from defeating the Cincinnati Reds. But these chants weren’t for him or for the home team.

“Carly! Carly!” intoned the group, several clad in crop tops, rainbow jeans and sparkly skirts. For many of them, Washington’s 8-5 win was merely the opening act.

The real show came soon after the game ended, when the infield dirt became a dance floor, a black stage replaced second base and the subject of the group’s calls — Carly Rae Jepsen — walked onto the field wearing a yellow, glittering dress and sky blue tights.

Jepsen’s postgame performance, the latest in the Nationals’ summer concert series, drew a group of her die-hard fans to one of Washington’s best-attended games of the year. A crowd of 38,402 filled Nationals Park on a pristine summer evening, over 13,000 more than the team’s average attendance entering Friday.

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The singer-songwriter and a Major League Baseball team made for an unlikely pairing. Country, rock, reggaeton and hip-hop typically dominate clubhouses and stadiums. Jepsen is a Canadian pop star whose breezy hits, including her 2012 viral breakout “Call Me Maybe,” have cultivated an ardent fan base that skews younger, female and LGBTQ.

“She is a genius; she’s an icon; she’s a visionary,” said Katherine McCauley, a 30-year-old D.C. resident who watched from Section 227.

McCauley and other fans praised the unadulterated joy in Jepsen’s performances. The feeling was evident during a vibrant hour-long show that featured 15 buoyant songs, fireworks erupting from the stage and Jepsen singing through a seemingly ever-present smile. The audience reciprocated. Some waved phone flashlights, others their arms and, in one case, a red Nationals foam finger.

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The Nationals’ first summer concert of the season, on June 7, featured rapper Flo Rida and drew a crowd of 39,235. Its success prompted Washington to increase the number of field passes available for Jepsen’s show. The passes, which went on sale June 12, sold out just over two weeks later, the team said.

“We look at a number of factors when deciding [performers],” Nationals vice president of events Jonathan Stahl said in an email. “We want to make sure that the overall lineup has something for everyone and that we do not over-index in one particular genre.”

Additional concerts with singer-songwriter Teddy Swims and country band Lady A are planned for later this season. And the success of the first two shows could lead to more. Stahl said fans “should be on the lookout … for an exciting addition” to the lineup.

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Maddy Berner, a 32-year-old D.C. native who attended Friday with five friends, grew up with minimal interest in sports. She had been to a few Nationals games before Friday.

“They were long; they were arduous; they were hot; there was little shade; there wasn’t a lot going on,” she said. “… None of it was appealing to me.”

But Jepsen gave her a reason to return to Nationals Park.

“I was really looking at it as just a concert,” she said. “I wasn’t even considering that I would have to attend the game.”

Some even traveled to see Jepsen. Aaron Herschlag, 29, drove from New York to attend his fourth baseball game and his 19th Jepsen concert. Renee Jiang, a 21-year-old software engineer who discovered Jepsen’s music during the pandemic, spent nearly $300 — and endured significant travel delays caused by Friday’s mass IT outage — to fly in from Boston.

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Jiang had never attended a baseball game. She hadn’t even watched one on TV.

“When I heard that this was happening, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe this is finally a chance for me to actually experience what [baseball is] like,’” Jiang said. “I feel like it’s something I probably have been missing out on for a while.”

While some attendees came primarily for Jepsen, others saw Friday as a perfect blend of their interests.

Drew Rivera loves the Nationals and Jepsen. The D.C. native has been a fan of the team since they moved to the city and attended their 2019 World Series parade.

He became a Jepsen fan after hearing her music at a house party in college. That made Friday a perfect night, especially because it came a day after his 28th birthday.

Eloise Arcurio, a 10-year-old from Bethesda, was another who came to enjoy her dual interests.

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Arcurio follows the Nationals casually. She likes to come on Sunday afternoons, when kids are allowed to run the bases after the game, and collects ice cream helmets. Her first concert was when she saw Jepsen at a festival last year. She now loves live music and the pop star.

“I couldn’t stop speaking with my hand up like a mic,” she said.

“She’s electric, kind of giddy excited that we kind of be able to do both of these things,” added her father, Josh.

Friday also brought together friends and family members whose disparate interests melded into a shared experience. Page Forrest, 29, bought tickets for her and her boyfriend Feb. 26, the day the Nationals announced Jepsen’s performance.

“My bf is a baseball guy becoming a Carly convert and then there’s me, a Carly stan becoming a baseball girly,” she wrote in a Reddit post. “I have never bought tickets to anything so fast.”

Multiple Nationals players, including starting pitcher Jake Irvin, outfielder Jesse Winker and relievers Jacob Barnes and Jordan Weems, stayed after the team’s victory and took in the concert from just outside their dugout.

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They all watched Jepsen perform many of her greatest hits — including “Psychedelic Switch,” “Kollage,” “Run Away With Me” and, of course, “Call Me Maybe,” which drew the loudest cheers from the crowd.

Before she performed the megahit, Jepsen joked that she had forgotten the lyrics. She pointed the mic to the assembled throng and invited it to belt out the familiar words.

Some members of her band wore white Nationals jerseys, and Jepsen donned one for the last song of the night, “Cut to the Feeling,” which she sang while waving around her customary inflatable sword.

A few hours later, the infield had returned to normal and Nationals Park sat dark and empty. But the memories endured. Jepsen said at one point during the show that this was a night she would never forget. The fans who again chanted her name as they walked out of the ballpark seemed to concur.

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