Tag: tiny desk

Dhanika Pineda | December 19, 2025 From the moment GIVĒON arrived at the Tiny Desk, there was much to celebrate: Beloved had just received a Grammy nomination for best R&B album, and Leon Thomas’ performance of “Mutt” at the Tiny Desk was nominated for best R&B performance. Spirits were high, and GIVĒON brought all of that energy to this concert. GIVĒON treats performance as therapy, pouring out his heart like a bottle of wine. “As much as I love having you guys here, these next couple songs are for me,” he says. Even in his Tiny Desk (home) concert from [See More…]

Lars Gotrich | December 17, 2025 The Tiny Desk hasn’t seen string lights, paper snowflakes and garlands in a while. The holiday show is a tradition we love — and have missed — at NPR Music, so when considering an artist to deck the halls of the office, I kept coming back to Sixpence None the Richer. So much of the holiday season, especially as we grow older, is about finding a balance between bright lights and dark nights. Sixpence None the Richer’s music finds depth in the in-between, with buoyant melodies that twist and twirl, and lyrics underpinned by [See More…]

Alanté Serene | December 15, 2025 The first thing you might notice about Odeal’s Tiny Desk: He’s holding a phone in his hands. “Someone really special couldn’t make it today and it’s my mom,” he explains. “I’ve got her on the phone right now.” The British Nigerian singer and songwriter then props the FaceTime call right in front of him to give his mother a front row seat. Right from the first note, we are instantly transported to the warm, soulful pocket that we never leave. Ever since his debut EP in 2017, Odeal has built a deep catalog of [See More…]

Kara Frame | December 10, 2025 It’s rare these days for an artist to ask for fewer microphones, but after warming up in our space, Billy Strings did just that. Surrounded by his band, the bluegrass virtuoso brings back the spirit of Tiny Desk’s early days. We capture, in his own words, “the way these instruments are meant to sound.” “We’ve been lucky to play a lot of cool venues,” Strings says, pausing to reflect. “But this one’s different. It has that same soul to it because — I’ve seen so many amazing performances that happened right here and I [See More…]

Lars Gotrich | December 5, 2025 There’s nothing easy about the laid-back cool of Air’s music. On record and for film soundtracks, the French electronic duo turns distressed dreams into symphonies plucked from cotton candy clouds — sonically light, but heavy with emotion. Yet to see Air’s members perform live, everything seems so effortless. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel have been looking back on Air’s catalog recently, extending the anniversary tour of their debut album. Surrounded by synths and keys bearing Air’s block-letter logo, the band opens this Tiny Desk with “Le Voyage de Pénélope,” the piano-driven, interstellar fantasia from [See More…]

Ann Powers | December 3, 2025 Brandi Carlile has a way of making any performance feel like a tête-à-tête, a deep emotional exchange between friends that just happens to take place in a crowd. Yet the challenge of bringing songs from her gorgeous new album Returning to Myself to the Tiny Desk still shook her. “It’s the kind of thing that really makes your blood run a little cold,” Carlile says, laying down her acoustic guitar after the gentle “A War with Time.” She then turns to the Roland keyboard mounted on the desktop and begins “A Woman Oversees,” a [See More…]

Robin Hilton | December 1, 2025 David Byrne has a long history of staging elaborate live shows, often with a sprawling cast of musicians, highly choreographed dancing and unusual instrumentation. So when we learned he wanted to have more than a dozen performers at the Tiny Desk, playing everything from cello, saxophone and marimba to a Brazilian timbau and zabumba (not to mention various guitars and keys), we weren’t sure we’d be able to fit it all in. It turns out his latest tour, for the album Who Is The Sky?, is well designed for our roughly 10 by 11-foot [See More…]

Suraya Mohamed | November 24, 2025 This is the very first K-pop band to play behind the Tiny Desk. SEVENTEEN’s name comes from an equation: 13 members + 3 teams + 1 group. Those three teams focus on hip-hop, vocal and performance to come together as one. SEVENTEEN (SVT for short) recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a world tour, performing in big stadiums for millions of fans (aka Carats). After their last U.S. concert in Washington, D.C., five of the members stopped by the NPR Music office to play in front of what’s likely their smallest audience ever. Bred [See More…]

Robin Hilton | November 21, 2025 When Robert Plant first stepped behind the Tiny Desk on a blustery Halloween afternoon, he took stock of the relatively stripped-down setup. “This is just like Live Aid,” he said with a smile. “I couldn’t hear myself there either.” He was referring to the fact we don’t amplify voices or use monitors so artists can hear themselves. But if ever there was someone up to the challenge, it’s Robert Plant. With a voice that’s only gotten better with age, Plant has deftly moved from the full-throated rock and swagger of Led Zeppelin to the [See More…]