Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan met during their freshmen year at Berklee College of Music. They were featured in the same concert, her playing strings and him jazz trombone. They started dating in the sophomore year and formed duo Karmin which is a combination of the word "Carmen" aka "Song" in Latin and "Karma".

Despite starting off in classical route, Amy has always loved rap. "We started hearing Nicki Minaj and more rap on pop radio," she said in an interview. "I've always loved rap, but I grew up in a Christian household and wasn't allowed to listen to stuff with a parental advisory sticker on it. So I knew I could rap in the shower, but I was so terrified about posting it online."

Karmin covered such songs as Minaj's "Super Bass" and Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now" and uploaded them online, propelling their online cult popularity status. An EP titled "Inside Out" was released in 2010. Up to their second album, "The Winslow Session", Karmin were still an indie act. But their name caught the attention of L.A. Reid who then signed them under Epic.

Reid told the duo not to have a collaboration in their first major album. Therefore they co-wrote a lot of their songs with songwriter Claude Kelly and recorded originals such as "Brokenhearted" and "I Told You So". These two tunes were performed live for the first time on their debut "Saturday Night Live" gig in February 2012.

"Brokenhearted" in particular became their first charting hit by entering at number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. As a new act, Karmin made a lot of promotional appearances ahead of their album "Hello" release on May 8, 2012.