Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978), known professionally as Karen O, is an American singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Known for her dynamic performances and distinctive vocals, she is a prominent figure in the 2000s garage rock and post-punk revivals, and in the New York music scene. She is regarded as a style icon.
Outside of work with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O gained recognition by co-writing the soundtrack of Where the Wild Things Are and "The Moon Song" for Her, performing on both. She released the solo album Crush Songs in 2014 and collaborated with Danger Mouse for the album Lux Prima in 2019. She has also recorded songs for the soundtracks of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Frankenweenie, and Hanna.
Karen O's accolades include nominations for eight Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, two Critics' Choice Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2023, Rolling Stone included her on its list of the "200 Greatest Singers of All Time".
Early life
Karen Lee Orzolek was born on November 22, 1978, in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Englewood, New Jersey after her family moved to the United States in 1980. She is the daughter of a Korean mother and a Polish-American father. She graduated from Dwight-Englewood School, and attended Oberlin College and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She found it embarrassing how "well-behaved" she was in her childhood, "which is probably why I do things like spit water on myself on stage as an adult".
Career
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
In early 2000, Karen O founded the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs with guitarist Nick Zinner; drummer Brian Chase was added in September 2000 to form a trio. They achieved international fame with the release of their acclaimed debut studio album, Fever to Tell, signing with Interscope Records for distribution only in 2003. It was hailed as the best release of the year by many publications, and sold over one million copies worldwide by the end of the decade. They have since released four more albums to general acclaim and commercial success, becoming known for their musical reinventions and Karen O's energetic performances. Regarding their approach to music, Karen O told the Los Angeles Times in 2009 that, "We still have to grab people by the collar ... We put out a record every three years now; we could easily be forgotten. If you look at a lot of our peers that we came up with, a lot of them have disappeared."thumb|[[Yeah Yeah Yeahs performing at Coachella in 2006]]
Each of Yeah Yeah Yeahs's albums has entered the US Billboard 200, with Mosquito (2013) reaching the top five, Show Your Bones (2006) the top 20, and It's Blitz! (2009) the top 30. All of their albums have also entered the UK Albums Chart, with every one making the top ten except Fever to Tell, which made the top 20. They received four nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for Fever to Tell, Show Your Bones, It's Blitz!, and Cool It Down; the first was also nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize. Their singles "Maps", "Heads Will Roll", and "Sacrilege" have collectively received seven nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards, and "Spitting Off the Edge of the World" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Solo career
In 2004, Karen O, using the moniker Marshmellow, directed the music video for "We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own" by Liars, fronted by her then-boyfriend Angus Andrew. The following year, she directed the "Blessed Evening" video for Foetus with her then-boyfriend Spike Jonze working as cinematographer. In 2006, Karen O directed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs video for "Cheated Hearts".
On December 10, 2006, a home-recorded album titled KO at Home was leaked via an invite-only BitTorrent tracking site. The album, originally a personal gift to Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, was discovered inside a suitcase that Sitek had left behind in a New York City apartment. The disc's 14 tracks and scan of the cover (a photograph of Karen O with a poem written by Oscar Wilde on the back side of the photo) quickly spread. News sites broke the story of the leak when Sitek lashed out at the fan who leaked the demos. Eventually, Sitek followed up his comments with an apology letter. In response to the leak, Karen O said that "shit happens", and although she was "a little grossed out", she offered commentary on which of the songs she liked the most.
Karen O was featured in the track "Cut Me Up" by Har Mar Superstar for the soundtrack to the 2005 horror film House of Wax. For the film Jackass Number Two, Karen O collaborated with electronic artist Peaches and Johnny Knoxville to record a track entitled "Backass"; for Jackass 3D, she covered Roger Alan Wade's "If You're Gonna Be Dumb" under the alternative title of "If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough". In 2007, she also contributed vocals to a version of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" for the I'm Not There film soundtrack. She performed a short song at the end of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! episode "Brothers Cinco". She also performed the track "Strange Love" on the album Frankenweenie Unleashed! (Music Inspired by the Motion Picture).left|thumb|Karen O performing on the Crush Songs mini tour in 2014Under the moniker Kids with Canes, Karen O and her now-husband Barnaby Clay directed the music video for the Tiny Masters of Today song "Hologram World", released in 2008. Karen O also contributed vocals to the song and served as choreographer of the video, in which she appears with Yeah Yeah Yeahs bandmates Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, as well as Mike D from the Beastie Boys, Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers, Russell Simins from the Blues Explosion, and Sam James from The Mooney Suzuki. Also in 2008, Karen O debuted a side project called Native Korean Rock with fellow New York City musicians, with two intimate performances at Union Pool in Brooklyn on July 21.
In 2009, Karen O contributed backing vocals, screaming animal sounds and noises to the songs "Gemini Syringes", "I Can Be A Frog" and "Watching the Planets" on The Flaming Lips' album Embryonic. She composed all songs on the soundtrack of Spike Jonze's 2009 film Where the Wild Things Are (except a cover of the Daniel Johnston song "Worried Shoes") with Carter Burwell. She is listed on the soundtrack as "Karen O and the Kids". The song "All Is Love", written by Karen O and Nick Zinner and included in this soundtrack, was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Karen O collaborated with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" for the soundtrack to the 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, for which Reznor and Ross composed the score. In 2011, she contributed vocals on the song "Pinky's Dream" on the David Lynch debut album Crazy Clown Time.
In 2012, she collaborated with experimental rock group Swans on the song "Song for a Warrior" on their album The Seer. She also lends vocals to the song "GO!" on Santigold's 2012 album Master of My Make-Believe. On the collaboration project with N.A.S.A. on The Spirit of Apollo, she appears on the track "Strange Enough", together with Ol' Dirty Bastard and Fatlip. Karen O has also collaborated with James Iha on his second solo LP, Look to the Sky, in 2012.
thumb|Karen O performing in 2019
Karen O contributed "The Moon Song" to Jonze's 2013 film Her, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her debut solo album, Crush Songs, was released on September 9, 2014. It was released on Cult Records via Kobalt Label Services. On February 17, 2015, she released a live album titled Live from Crush Palace, recorded during three shows at Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Masonic Lodge in Los Angeles in September 2014. The album features live renditions of songs from Crush Songs, as well as "Hideaway" from Where the Wild Things Are and "The Moon Song" from Her.
In 2014, her cover of "A Marshmallow World" was featured in Target's holiday commercials. In 2015, her cover of Animotion's "Obsession" was used as the opening theme for the Starz miniseries Flesh and Bone. On May 5, 2015, a song by Karen O in tribute to Nellie Bly was used as part of a Google doodle commemorating Bly's 151st birthday. The same year, Microsoft approached Karen O to pen a theme song for Square Enix's game Rise of the Tomb Raider, which resulted in the song "I Shall Rise".
On January 11, 2018, Karen O released the song "Yo! My Saint", featuring guest vocals from Michael Kiwanuka, in support of Kenzo's Spring Summer 2018 collection.
On March 15, 2019, Karen O and musician-producer Danger Mouse released the collaborative album Lux Prima. The two originally met to discuss collaboration in 2007 as mutual admirers, but did not collaborate until 2016 due to scheduling and availability, resulting in the album Lux Prima three years later. To promote the album, an immersive art piece and communal listening experience titled "An Encounter with Lux Prima" was released. Spike Jonze also shot the video for the song "Woman" live in one take, as the duo performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Artistry and public image
thumb|Karen O is noted for wearing eccentric outfits designed by [[Christian Joy]]
Karen O was a key figure of the 2000s garage rock and post-punk revivals, standing at the forefront of the New York music scene. Her energetic live performances, which include once dousing herself in olive oil and spitting drinks on herself or the audience, became her trademark. Her distinctive vocals have been described in select reviews as "ethereal" and an "eclectic snarl that softens and trembles". She is also regarded as a sex symbol—a label she rejects—and fashion icon, which she credits to her partnership with costume designer Christian Joy, wearing her works exclusively at concerts and live events. She explained in an interview: