NPR announced its 10th annual Tiny Desk Contest, where up-and-coming bands and musicians can submit video performances of songs for a chance to play behind the radio’s famed tiny desk. The submissions are analyzed by a group of music experts before a winner is announced in late May.
Bob Boilen, the host to NPR’s All Songs Considered, and Stephen Thompson, a NPR Music editor, started the Tiny Desk series in 2008. The “tiny” performances went on for about six years, with notable appearances from artists such as Laura Gibson and Cher, before the Tiny Desk Contest was announced in late December of 2014.
“I never really thought that it would go much beyond a little novelty thing that we did now and again,” Boilen says to Alaska Public Media.
In its inaugural year, the contest was a huge success as thousands of video submissions flooded the Tiny Desk Concert inbox just weeks after the contest was announced. The judges expressed their overall gratitude for the submissions.
The contest is now a staple of NPR Music. Every year, artists look forward to their big chance and to join the ranks of the great artists who played behind the desk before them. Last year’s winner Little Moon entered videos four years in a row before finally winning.
“It’s like when your crush likes you back,” bassist for Little Moon, Nathan Hardyman said to Deseret News.
This year submissions will be open from Jan. 23 to Feb. 24, and all artists will record their video behind a desk of their own. The group or solo act must be unsigned and located in a US state or territory to be considered for the prize.
“We’re looking for great unknowns, so if you already have a recording contract, you’ll have to sit this one out,” Boilen writes in the contest announcement.
Winning the Tiny Desk Contest can take an artist career to new heights, creating opportunities that would not be available otherwise. Gaelynn Lea, a fiddle teacher in Duluth, Minnesota, won the Tiny Desk Contest in 2015 with her song, “Someday We’ll Linger In The Sun.” Since winning, Lea has co-founded a coalition that amplifies disability culture in the music industry and wrote the music for the Broadway adaptation of Macbeth.
“The contest definitely changed my life,” Lea said to NPR Music last year.
After only ten years Tiny Desk has changed so many lives and bolstered creativity all over the nation. Though it is a contest, the Tiny Desk Contest is a celebration of music, culture, and creativity for all who participate.
“Yes, there’s a contest, and wonderful there’s going to be a winner, but the most important wonderful thing is for people and friends to get together and make something—that’s the value of art, the value of community, that’s what we wanted to inspire,” said Boilen to KTOO.
