This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. Villano Antillano kicked off her Tiny Desk Concert with a Britney Spears-approved message: Dump. Him. “Yo Tengo un Novio,” off the Puerto Rican rapper’s debut LP, La Sustancia X, called out the toxic, controlling expectations of …
MUNA | Tiny Desk Concert
“It’s very cool to see that everyone who works for NPR is gay,” MUNA singer-guitarist Katie Gavin deadpanned by way of introduction at the band’s Tiny Desk concert. For a band whose latest album is currently soundtracking its second straight Pride Month, MUNA has found a deep kinship with queer audiences — a fact Gavin noted during the lead-in to …
NIKI | Tiny Desk Concert
NPR Music’s Tiny Desk is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. These artists represent just a sliver of the cultural diversity that exists within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. NIKI, a.k.a. Nicole Zefanya, took a circuitous route to the Tiny Desk. Born in Jakarta, she scored a major opportunity by winning a competition at 15 to …
Announcing the winner of the 2023 Tiny Desk Contest
NPR Music received nearly 6,000 entries to this year’s Tiny Desk Contest, the annual search for the next great undiscovered artist to play a Tiny Desk concert. But one Springville, Utah, band rose to the top as its entry surprised the judges, moved them to tears and filled them with hope. Today, we’re thrilled to announce Little Moon is the …
Watch Jacksonville Artists’ Tiny Desk Contest Submissions
The Tiny Desk Contest is back for 2023, with a new panel of judges and another opportunity for unsigned artists to earn an invite to perform on the revered, improvised stage in front of Bob Boilen’s desk at NPR Music HQ. Tens of thousands of musicians submitted their videos before the March 13 deadline — including nearly two-dozen artists from …
Kassa Overall | Tiny Desk Concert
Kassa Overall is no stranger to NPR. Back in 2020 he was a featured vocalist and percussionist on the Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science Tiny Desk concert and in the same year he scored the original music for the first season of NPR Music’s Louder Than A Riot podcast. (His catchy theme song has been remixed by producer Suzi …
Durand Bernarr | Tiny Desk Concert
Durand Bernarr is an experience. At the Tiny Desk, members of his band — clad in costumes evoking characters from the Disney Channel animated series The Proud Family — surrounded Bernarr, outfitted in a white and magenta sequined ensemble with a wig styled in a pompadour, channeling the electric energy of the soul and funk singer of the Proud Family, …
The Beths | Tiny Desk Concert
If you squint hard enough at the paper in front of Elizabeth Stokes, you’ll find an encouraging note she wrote to herself: Breathe. Relax. Smile. (followed by a hand-drawn smiley face, of course). We get it: The Tiny Desk is filmed in broad daylight, at eye level, in front of NPR employees and, eventually, is released to “the inside of …
Theo Croker | Tiny Desk Concert
This year’s Black History Month celebration at the Tiny Desk features a carefully crafted lineup spanning many genres, generations and walks of life. Each artist represents the best in their class and will be performing at the Tiny Desk for the first time. Trumpeter Theo Croker arrived at the Tiny Desk with an unmistakable air of chill, an easy smile …
Lee Fields | Tiny Desk Concert
This year’s Black History Month celebration at the Tiny Desk features a carefully crafted lineup spanning many genres, generations and walks of life. Each artist represents the best in their class and will be performing at the Tiny Desk for the first time. You can’t see it on the screen, but there’s a piece of paper taped to the Desk …
Hermanos Gutiérrez | Tiny Desk Concert
There is a slow burning intensity to everything Hermanos Gutiérrez does, including how the duo walked into our offices and saw the Tiny Desk for the first time. “Wow, there it is…” Estevan said quietly to his brother Alejandro. Hermanos Gutiérrez’s origin story is as intricate as the guitar playing styles of its two members. The brothers have roots in …
Jake Blount | Tiny Desk Concert
Jake Blount has an astonishing imagination. While a concert of folk tunes could simply be a singer and perhaps a fiddle or banjo, the young proponent of traditional music brought eight bandmates and told the NPR crowd that they were here to play “Black folk music from the future.” Most of the songs are from Jake Blount’s late-2022 release, The …
The Smile | Tiny Desk Concert
Surely my musical highlight for 2022 was this Tiny Desk concert from The Smile. Just how Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner were going to perform songs from their sonically adventurous album A Light for Attracting Attention was a puzzle not only to me but to the band. They arrived early, along with saxophonist …
beabadoobee | Tiny Desk Concert
Beatrice Laus, who performs as beabadoobee, possesses the sort of soft, lilting voice that often runs the risk of getting lost in her signature sound — a mix of grungy, ’90s rock and noisy dream pop. Mix Laus the wrong way in a live setting and you miss out on vocals that lend whatever song they’re paired with an undeniable …
NoSo | Tiny Desk Concert
Baek Hwong, the artist who performs as NoSo, arrived at NPR’s headquarters on a sunny Friday afternoon that followed a week of relentless rain in Washington, D.C. The change in weather was apt for the Los Angeles-based artist whose music often sheds light on dark times. I first discovered NoSo when they entered the Tiny Desk Contest back in 2019. …
Andrew Bird and Iron & Wine | Tiny Desk Concert
I’d been entertained and enchanted by the many of the 150 or so small concerts Andrew Bird performed on Instagram during the pandemic. Then I heard his new album, Inside Problems, and invited him to the desk. It had been six years since his first Tiny Desk performance, which was with a band; this time, I wanted an intimate solo …
Pigeon Pit | Tiny Desk Concert
A song by Pigeon Pit has gotten me through this year. Chugging a punk twang with the sun at its back, “milk crates” recognizes the relentless churn of life, but still seeks freedom from tyranny, exhaustion and the everyday nonsense that drags us down. The first time I heard the song performed live was at the band’s Tiny Desk sound …
Alisa Amador, 2022 Tiny Desk Contest Winner | Tiny Desk Concert
It surely was a day of joyful tears. And those joyful tears for Alisa Amador, the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest, came at a time when she had been considering putting her music career on hold. For the staff of NPR and the Tiny Desk crew, it was our first Tiny Desk concert with an audience in over …
Tiny Desk Meets SXSW | KAINA
Every year, NPR Music participates in the SXSW music festival, whether it’s curating a stage or simply attending hundreds of shows at the annual event in Austin, Texas. In 2020, the festival was canceled due to the pandemic, but it returned last March as an online festival. We programmed a virtual “stage” of Tiny Desk (home) concerts in 2021 in …
Interview | Bob Boilen on the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest
The Tiny Desk creator offers tips on submitting your video to the 2022 contest
Attention unsigned Jacksonville musicians: The Tiny Desk wants to hear your music. NPR’s 2022 Tiny Desk Contest is underway. Over the past seven years, nearly 35,000 musicians have submitted their videos to the Tiny Desk Contest in the hopes of being chosen to perform as part of NPR Music’s signature music discovery series. Now, NPR is once again calling for …
Want to play your own Tiny Desk concert? Enter the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest
The Tiny Desk Contest – NPR Music’s annual nationwide search for the next great undiscovered artist to play a Tiny Desk concert – is back for its eighth year. We’ll begin accepting entries next Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. ET. We’re thrilled to announce our panel of judges – the folks who will be selecting the 2022 Contest winner. …
Watch | The War On Drugs play Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. In their Tiny Desk (home) concert, The War On Drugs gather in their packed studio in Burbank, …
Watch | Tiny Desk winner Neffy
Neffy performs her contest winning song "Wait Up"
It felt good to be home, if only for one night: home, in this case, being my Tiny Desk at NPR. We were about to film Neffy, our 2021 Tiny Desk Contest winner, at my desk at NPR headquarters. My corner of the NPR Music department looked just as I had left it almost 600 days ago; it’s eerie inside …
Hiatus Kaiyote: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. Melbourne alt-soul collective Hiatus Kaiyote tricked out its avant-garde recording studio, The Villa, and lathered it with …