Qveen Herby

Heidemann began her musical career as a member of pop duo Karmin, with now-husband Nick Noonan, releasing cover songs on YouTube. The group signed with Epic and released their debut EP, Hello, on May 7, 2012, to poor reviews from critics; despite this, the EP was a commercial success supplemented by two hit singles: "Brokenhearted" peaked at number 16 on US Billboard Hot 100 charts, and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, while "Hello" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs charts in the United States.[4]

The duo followed Hello up by their debut full-length studio album, Pulses (2014), which saw less commercial success, and was supplemented by the single "Acapella." Following the conclusion of promotion for Pulses, Karmin left Epic Records and began releasing music independently.[5] They released a slew of singles from 2014 to 2016 in anticipation of a second studio album. These included "Sugar", "Yesterday", "Along the Road", "Didn't Know You", and "Come With Me (Pure Imagination)". In 2016, Karmin released the Sugar EP in collaboration with Wild Culture. It features three remixes of "Sugar" and a remix of Riley Pearce's single "Brave". The duo released their second studio album, Leo Rising, on September 9, 2016.

In 2017, all of Karmin's social media was rebranded to Qveen Herby and a small preview stating "Karmin Is Dead, Long Live the Qveen." was posted. Noonan formally announced her solo career as well as her debut extended play, EP 1.[3] Although her husband Nick was still involved in the project, Noonan noted that they felt that they could not release the album as Karmin as "There was that much happening sonically." [6] Noonan picked her stage name by combining "Qveen" a nickname given to her in college alongside "Herby" the mascot of the Nebraska Cornhuskers later realizing that "Herby" means "Warrior".[6] The music video for her first single "Busta Rhymes" was released on June 1, 2017, followed by the release of EP 1 a day later. The EP received poor reviews from critics who questioned Herby's rebranding, citing it as an example of cultural appropriation and "modern blackface".[7] Further criticisms included the musical and visual similarities to alternative artist FKA Twigs.[8][9] Nevertheless, the EP experienced fair success, peaking at #37 on the US Billboard Independent Albums Chart and #13 on the US Heatseekers Albums Chart.[10]

Following the release of EP 1, Herby began releasing a series of extended plays, with EP 2 being released in 2017, EP3 and EP 4 in 2018, EP 5, EP 6, EP 7, and The Vignettes in 2019, and Tiny Piano, EP 8 and EP 9 in 2020. Three of the EPs charted within Billboard charts in the US.