Caroline Polachek

Due to her production and engineering work on the song, Beyoncé's nomination for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 57th ceremony included Polachek.

It was nominated for Best Engineered Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.

Polachek has worked extensively with other artists, collaborating with Blood Orange, Fischerspooner, Charli XCX, Oneohtrix Point Never and Flume, as well as writing material for Beyoncé ("No Angel").

Caroline Elizabeth Polachek (born June 20, 1985) is an American singer, producer, and songwriter.

Raised in Connecticut, Polachek cofounded the indie pop band Chairlift while studying at the University of Colorado.

Polachek was born in Manhattan, New York City, on June 20, 1985, to James Montel Polachek (1944–2020), a scholar in Chinese history and trained classical musician, and Elizabeth Allan.

Her family relocated to Tokyo, Japan, where she lived between the ages of one and six, and later settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, where Polachek started singing choir in the third grade.

She was a synthesizer player from a young age as her father gave her a Yamaha keyboard to dissuade her from being disruptive on the piano.

Polachek's parents divorced in 1994.

She describes herself as "a very hyperactive kid" and said that they would play Enya at their respective houses to calm her senses.

Polachek recounts her early exposure to traditional Japanese songs and anime themes as being influential on her musical education.

She rode horses growing up.

As a teenager, she began traveling to New York to attend concerts, which were a mix of post-hardcore emo, DIY punk and jazz shows.

Mike Patton of Faith No More once personally walked her into a show at the Knitting Factory when her fake ID was rejected.

She played in a couple of bands in high school and college.

Polachek founded the band Chairlift with musician Aaron Pfenning after the pair met during her sophomore year at the University of Colorado.

The duo emerged from the late-2000s Brooklyn music scene with the sleeper hit "Bruises".

They relocated to New York, where Polachek studied art at New York University, and were joined by Patrick Wimberly in early 2007.

That year, the band released their first EP, Daylight Savings, which was followed by their debut studio album Does You Inspire You in 2008.

In 2008, Polachek formed Girl Crisis choir with twelve other female singers, including members of Au Revoir Simone and Class Actress.

The modular group arranged and recorded two cover versions a year from 2008 to 2013, including songs by Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, the Bangles, and Ace of Base.

In 2010, Polachek joined Jorge Elbrecht of Brooklyn-based Violens to record a "sgin" of Justin Bieber's "Never Let You Go": "We went on YouTube to find a video among the highest ranks of hits, and came across 'Never Let You Go'. We went on to make what we call a 'sgin' (anagram of the word 'sing')—an original song written specifically to synch into someone else's video on mute".

The same year, she also recorded a duet with Violens, "Violent Sensation Descends (French Duet Version)".

She later shot and directed the music video for the band's song "It Couldn't Be Perceived" in 2011.

Polachek and Wimberly went on as a duo to write and produce their second studio album Something (2012) alongside producers Dan Carey and Alan Moulder.

In addition, she directed the album's music videos, including "Amanaemonesia", and "I Belong in Your Arms".

In 2012, Polachek featured on the song "Everything Is Spoilt by Use" by Ice Choir, a solo project by Kurt Feldman of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart; she also directed and edited the song's music video.

She collaborated with Elbrecht again on the EP Gloss Coma 001 in 2013, which includes the single "I.V. Aided Dreams".

Polachek collaborated with Blood Orange on the tracks "Chamakay" in 2013 and "Holy Will" in 2018.

In 2013, she co-wrote and co-produced "No Angel", which was featured on Beyoncé's critically acclaimed fifth studio album Beyoncé.

In 2013, she also contributed vocals to "Unhold" by the Spanish alternative-dance band Delorean.

Polachek began performing sets under the moniker Ramona Lisa in 2013.

The name originates from a former pseudonym Polachek used on Facebook.

In 2014, she released her first solo project, Arcadia, as Ramona Lisa.

She announced her debut self-produced studio album as Ramona Lisa, entitled Arcadia, in February 2014.

Polachek described the album as "pastoral electronic music".

Under CEP, she dropped Drawing the Target Around the Arrow in 2017.

Chairlift disbanded in 2017, and Polachek embarked on a career under her own name.

Her 2019 album Pang featured an avant-pop sound and was released to critical acclaim, with the single "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings" receiving viral attention.

In 2023, Polachek released Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, which became her first album to enter the charts in multiple territories.