Tag: NPR Music

This Black Music Month, Tiny Desk is giving the ladies their flowers. We’re releasing nine Tiny Desk concerts from Black women artists, from veterans who’ve paved the way for what we hear today in Black music, to those who are carving out their own paths. Bobby Carter | June 3, 2024 To hear Tems tell the audience that she was shy came as a surprise to me. As a performer, she captivates us with such ease and exudes confidence when she’s not, so to see her blushing as the crowd roared was sweet to witness. Unlike most artists who’ve performed [See More…]

Bobby Carter | May 31, 2024 The vibrancy that bounces off the screen while watching Sean Paul’s Tiny Desk concert is undeniable. Hearing his voice just a few feet away was an overwhelming experience, and I overheard a few NPR staffers in attendance who agreed. “He sounds just like the record!” they said, moving like nobody was watching. Admittedly, we don’t host enough dancehall artists at the Tiny Desk so there was an element of surprise at play. But the Jamaican superstar’s catalog boasts some of the world’s biggest party anthems; it should’ve been a no-brainer when working with that. [See More…]

Elle Mannion | May 29, 2024 While each Tiny Desk concert is special in its own way, we only publish one annually from a Tiny Desk Contest winner. This year, that winner is The Philharmonik — an up-and-coming multi-genre artist from Sacramento, Calif. — whose entry rose to the top of nearly 7,000 entries submitted by independent artists. In that entry, singer Christian Gates and his band proved they knew how to make a song shine behind a desk, performing in an office setting in business casual attire. They keep up the act at the Tiny Desk, with Gates cosplaying [See More…]

Stephen Thompson | May 24, 2024 Nelly Furtado’s career has spanned a quarter-century, not to mention tens of millions of records sold, so it’s tough to fit all the highlights into a single Tiny Desk concert. But damned if Furtado didn’t at least try: Her set featured a bunch of her biggest hits (“Promiscuous,” “Say It Right,” “I’m Like A Bird,” “Maneater”), her remix of Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” and, yes, a brand-new single called “Love Bites.” In all, 11 tracks — some of them complete, some of them truncated into medleys — made the cut. For this [See More…]

Ashley Pointer | May 1, 2024 On a call ahead of her Tiny Desk taping, WILLOW told me that she “just wants to feel it and be in the vibe.” Many artists worry about having to tailor their music for the space, but if done right, a beautiful synergy can be achieved. With boundless energy and magnetic stage presence, the artist’s exceptional vocal range and musicality left the audience spellbound. Despite being only 23 years old, the singer-songwriter and musician Willow Smith is a vet when it comes to this music thing. She’s been consistently making music and on a [See More…]

Maia Stern | April 29, 2024 Even though it was the band’s first visit to the Tiny Desk, Hot Chip’s performance felt like a homecoming — a sweet return to some of the instruments the group first created its signature, playful sound with. Hot Chip’s “tiny instruments,” as lead vocalist Alexis Taylor called them, fit right into the space. The members of Hot Chip arrived at NPR HQ each dressed in a different colored top, their bright and brilliant looks matching the music’s classic electro-pop vibe. The band, joined by Jonny Lam on pedal steel guitar (who played a Tiny [See More…]

Bobby Carter | April 26, 2024 There’s nothing like hearing the oohs and aahs from the Tiny Desk audience when a recognizable note hits the soul. Ne-Yo’s setlist stoked up audible gasps with nonstop hits from his catalog and a few he’s written for megastars. He came draped in a bedazzled outfit and his signature fedora (one we had to ask him to adjust to see his eyes.) Not to be outdone, the band came outfitted in matching earth tones and sounded just as good as they looked. As with most artists who’ve spent years on the radio, the charts [See More…]

Suraya Mohamed | April 12, 2024 In the corner of a busy office at the NHK Broadcasting Center in Shibuya, Tokyo, a staffer rearranged books, vinyl records and tchotchkes on a bright red shelving unit. The production crew double-checked equipment settings and made small adjustments to the lighting. Another worker added a few more posters to the tall white file cabinets. Cameras were set and microphones were ready because Fujii Kaze and his band had just rehearsed the night before. Everyone in the room — including a few of us from NPR that were there to help — was eager [See More…]

In 2021, the Tiny Desk x globalFEST series was created to promote international music discovery. For the last three years, artists from around the globe have performed Tiny Desk (home) concerts from their respective countries, but for the first time this year, artists performed at the Tiny Desk at NPR’s headquarters. Suraya Mohamed | April 1, 2024 Thandiswa Mazwai is one of post-apartheid South Africa’s most influential musicians. For nearly 30 years she has championed a kind of dance music called Kwaito. The South African genre mixes a variety of rhythms and influences including hip-hop, reggae, jazz and house music. [See More…]