Swedish duo I Am Karate debuted their sleek, effervescent electro-pop in 2015 with a self-titled EP. Released later the same year, the single "Bitter" became their first to top a million streams. Both natives of Dalarna, Sweden, with an inclination for songwriting, Erika Ahlström and Marta Pettersson first met in 2014 and quickly decided they wanted to make music together. They cited Robyn and Susanne Sundfør as their biggest inspirations. With both singing lead, and with Pettersson on keyboards and Ahlström on electronic effects, they began playing shows and issued the self-released I Am Karate EP in 2015. Based on the EP and a couple of stand-alone singles, Gaffa magazine named them among their nominees for Best Unsigned Act in 2016. Later the same year, they signed with Universal and released their second EP, In Thin Air. By then based in Stockholm, I Am Karate played live on national television and had garnered hundreds of thousands of streams on multiple tracks before returning to the studio. After parting ways with Universal, the duo re-emerged in 2018 with the self-released single "Expectations," produced by Eirik Røland. They followed it with two more songs, including the self-produced "Work It Out," before the end of the year. ~ Marcy Donelson