Carlie Hanson

In May 2016, while working as a cashier at McDonald's, Hanson entered a local iHeart Radio contest to see Zayn in concert.[3] As her entry, she recorded a video of herself singing "Pillowtalk" by Zayn while sitting in a parked car outside a shopping mall. She posted the video to Instagram, and it was quickly reposted by iHeart, drawing significant attention. Hanson was subsequently contacted by a talent agent who invited her to Toronto to audition and record for producers from House of Wolf.[5] While in Los Angeles, she worked with songwriter Dale Anthoni.[4][6] In November 2017, Taylor Swift included Hanson's second single, "Only One", on an Apple Music playlist of her favorite songs. Hanson released a video for the song in March 2018, directed by Similar But Different, who assembled an all-female crew for the shoot.[7] In April 2018, "Only One" was averaging 400,000 streams daily.[8]

In September 2018, Hanson began touring with Troye Sivan and Kim Petras on Sivan's Bloom Tour, playing at venues including Radio City Music Hall in New York and the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.[9] In a review of the Minneapolis show, Twin Cities Media wrote: "She's badass, she’s unapologetic, she’s poppy yet gritty, she's effortlessly cool, her music absolutely bangs, and she’s selfmade. Carlie Hanson is a little bit of Lorde, a little of Billie Eilish meets Kiiara, and a lot of something all her own."[10][11]

In January 2019, Hanson supported Yungblud on a series of shows in Europe. She then signed with Warner Bros. Records in February 2019,[12] and Primary Wave Music in March 2019.[13][14] On April 26, 2019, Hanson released "Back in My Arms".[15] The song was later announced to be the lead single from her debut EP, Junk.[16] On May 24, 2019, she released "WYA", the second single from Junk.[17] Later that day, Taylor Swift added another of Hanson's songs, "Back in My Arms", to her Apple Music playlist.[18] The EP, consisting of five songs, was released on June 7, 2019.[19] In September 2019, she embarked on The WYA Tour across Europe and the United Kingdom.