Since we last wrote, we’ve hosted shows with Ruby Ibarra and others in the Tiny Desk family in Austin, Denver and Los Angeles. In Austin, longtime Texan Contest entrant Somebody Someone opened the show with a beautiful set. And Maren Morris was our surprise headliner, playing songs off her new album, D R E A M S I C L E, plus, “My Church,” a favorite from her Tiny Desk concert.
Maren Morris; credit: David Brendan Hall/NPR
In Denver, 2024 Top Shelf standout Frail Talk was up first, playing clever, gentle indie pop at the Bluebird Theater. We were thrilled to reunite with 2023 Contest winner Little Moon, that night’s headlining act, who played a handful of unreleased songs, plus its Contest-winning song “Wonder Eye.” Singer Emma Hardyman gained a few hundred new Colorado fans who were blown away with her vocal range.
Frail Talk, Ruby Ibarra and Little Moon; credit: Adrienne Thomas/NPR
In Los Angeles, 2025 Top Shelf favorite Tish Hyman played our show at the Regent Theater, impressing us with her strong voice and stage presence. R&B singer Jordan Ward was that night’s surprise headliner.
We put each of these shows on in collaboration with local NPR member stations (KUTX, KUVO, Indie 102.3, LAist, KVCR, KCRW); each show has been a great way to be in community with music lovers and public media.
The 2025 Tiny Desk Contest is presented by Capital One and supported by The Lagunitas Brewing Company.
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Our team is back at the Tiny Desk now, but will be hitting the road again in a couple weeks for the last leg of the 2025 tour. If you’re in Philadelphia or Washington, D.C., you can still get tickets to join us this July — all the details can be found at npr.org/tinydeskcontest.
And a note for our Pennsylvania Contest artists and fans: Our Philadelphia show with De Tierra Caliente, Ruby Ibarra and a soon-to-be-announced headliner has been moved to July 14 at The Foundry. If you had tickets to our previously announced July 15 show, you should have been refunded by World Cafe Live. And while we can’t share who the headliner is just yet — we can say it’s going to be a great night for rock ‘n’ roll.
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