"Call on Me" is a song by the Swedish DJ and producer Eric Prydz, released on 13 September 2004 on T56. It is based on a replayed sample of the 1982 Steve Winwood song "Valerie", and was inspired by a similar track created by the French duo Together. Its music video features women performing aerobics and dancing suggestively.
"Call on Me" reached number one on several record charts and won awards at the Echo Music Prize and International Dance Music Awards. In 2025, Billboard named "Call on Me" the 57th-greatest dance song. Prydz refused to perform it for decades, calling it "lazy". In 2025, he played it for the first time in 20 years at a show in Austin, Texas.
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Production
"Call on Me" is based on a replayed sample of the 1982 Steve Winwood song "Valerie". Prydz was inspired by a similar track created by the French duo Together, comprising Thomas Bangalter (of Daft Punk) and DJ Falcon. After Together declined to release their track, Prydz recreated it. Winwood rerecorded his vocals for "Call on Me". The "Valerie" instrumental was recreated by the company Replay Heaven, which recreates samples to simplify licensing.
Reception
"Call on Me" reached number one on the UK singles chart in September 2004. It returned to number one on 17 October, selling 23,519 copies. It was the lowest-selling UK number one since records began, as singles were facing competition from downloads, which were not yet included in the chart.
In 2005, "Call on Me" won Dance Production of the Year at the Echo Music Prize. At the International Dance Music Awards, it was nominated for Best House/Garage Track and Best Pop Dance Track in 2005 and Best Underground Dance Track in 2006. In 2025, Billboard named "Call on Me" the 57th-greatest dance song, describing it as "a bright, bubbly and beloved anthem reminiscent of a sparklier time in dance music".
Music video
The "Call on Me" video was directed by Huse Monfaradi, who proposed a "throwaway idea about sexual aerobics". It features an aerobics instructor played by Australian real-life fitness aerobic instructor Deanne Berry and a class of female dancers including one male participant.
In 2004, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, said: "The first time it came on, I nearly fell off my rowing machine." In 2005, it won Best Dance Video at the IDMA. In 2016, Vice wrote that "there's something so genuinely real about the video, something so almost tactile about it, so genuinely filled with priapic longing and lycra-encased lust that watching it now, feels like an act of genuine transgression ... 'Call on Me' definitely is a work of art. It is amazingly lurid, amazingly tacky, amazingly brash and amazingly bold." In 2011, NME named it the fifth-worst music video, citing its "lowest-common-denominator vibe".
Live performances
Prydz refused to play "Call on Me" for years, calling it "super lazy". After he refused to play it at a show in Canada, some members of the audience threw bottles at him. On 15 March 2025, Prydz played it at a show in Austin, Texas, for the first time in two decades.