Nikita Karmen

Nothing about Nikita Karmen's climb up the country-pop scene in the late 2010s followed a conventional narrative. To begin with, Karmen hailed from Australia, not the U.S., but she made the leap to America via Bobby Bones' touring company for his raucous syndicated morning zoo radio show. Bones' crew might be dubbed the Raging Idiots, but Karmen never played it dumb in her music. She stuck to sweet, sensitive, and melodic tunes that walked the line separating country and pop, much like the work of Taylor Swift and Maren Morris. This blend was showcased on her eponymous 2017 EP...