The lyrics contain references to both the 1980s and Canadian culture, such as jelly bracelets, hockey player Wayne Gretzky and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

It has sold 4,000 digital downloads in the United States as of August 2008, and the music video attracted more than 300,000 viewers on MySpace and the CBS official website.

Cobie Smulders played Robin Scherbatsky, a devoted broadcast journalist who moves from Canada for a job in New York, in the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother.

[3] Robin's Canadian side was initially intended to reflect on "the absurdity of American culture", but the creators later turned it into a medium for satire and jokes instead.

[4] In June 2006, executive producer Greg Malins submitted the idea of a music video starring one of the characters, and he picked out Robin.

[5][6] After watching a young Matt LeBlanc play a cameo role in Alanis Morissette's music video for "Walk Away", the creators decided to create Robin's secret past of being a Canadian pop star who "never became legit".

[10] Eventually, it was incorporated into Robin and Ted's "small relationship story" about trust and secrets, which Thomas believed was "the only reason the episode came together".

[21][22] The song is a tongue-in-cheek homage to 1980s American pop music,[18][23] featuring "robot vocoders, skater 'tudes, and brat-rap breakdowns," according to the staff of Spin.

[24][25] Erin Strecker and Margaret Lyons of Entertainment Weekly described the track as "carefree" and "blissful[ly] innocent",[26][27] and CBC.ca called it "campy".

[24][25] Meanwhile, the song reminded Miss Alli of Television Without Pity of Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy",[29] and Boston Herald's Mark Perigard felt it was "Canada's answer to Debbie Boone".

[31] Several references about women's fashion in the 1980s can be heard in the song, including jelly bracelets, graffiti-coats, hoop earrings, and Benetton shirts.

[33] It also mentions a number of Canadian cultural figures, such as Canada Day, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and former professional ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky.

[24] In 2006, the creators decided to make "an embarrassing piece of videotape footage" for every main character from the show, beginning with Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) in his pre-ladies man days shown in an episode in season 1, "Game Night".

The clothing and jewelry shown in the video were taken from various sources, including Universal Studios, American Apparel, shops on Melrose and other costume houses.

[8] It took her two days to learn the choreography from Kristin Denehy, the choreographer who played Barney's cousin and arranged Jason Segel's routine in the "Okay Awesome" episode.

[8] In the afternoon, Smulders went on to perform in front of a green screen, in the food court scene, and sequences with the band played by crew members.

[8][29] Robin is then seen wearing a stonewashed denim miniskirt, a pair of leggings,[42] and a matching jacket that has her name graffitied on the back,[43] with the sleeves rolled up in a shopping mall.

[29][44] She moves around the set, where a fictional "La Chocolatiere" store can be seen in the background,[33] takes part in a "highly choreographed" performance and interacts with various props.

[30] Eric Goldman of IGN enjoyed Smulders' "exuberant" performance, declaring it "may be the most awesome thing [he has] ever seen" and said that the backup dancers were "perfectly cast".

[52] Tom Eames of Digital Spy thought that the song was "actually pretty damn good," while calling the video "possibly HIMYM's finest moment" and "pure gold".

"[55] Eric Eisenberg of Cinema Blend praised Smulders' performance as "maddening and hilarious," while calling the track "one of the best TV-created pop songs of all time".

[24] Rolling Stone named it the second-best moment from the show, described the video as "a pitch-perfect send-up of neon revelry, synchronized dance, bad rapping, and corny, faux-candid close-ups á la Debbie Gibson".

[68][69] In 2014, a cut scene from the final episode features Robin singing "Let's Go to the Mall" in her wedding dress with the acid washed jean jacket over it.

In season 3's "Sandcastles in the Sand", she released a song of the same name, with a music video featuring Tiffany, Alan Thicke, and her teenage boyfriend Simon (James Van Der Beek).

[73] She hit her breaking point in February 1996, when she changed her stage name to Robin Daggers and released a grunge-influenced track called "P.S.

[79] In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Smulders performed a COVID-19-themed parody of the song entitled "Let's All Stay at Home" for an Instagram Live session, which was rewritten by Thomas, Bays and Brian Kim.