This year, we’re going bigger for the 2025 Tiny Desk Contest On the Road Tour. Not only will we be taking the (soon-to-be-announced) winner to bigger venues in 10 cities across the country and featuring a local Contest entrant opener at each stop — but for the first time ever, every show will also have a special surprise Tiny Desk headliner who has a connection to the city.
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We look forward to this tour every year. After weeks of sharing and connecting onscreen, it’s an opportunity for us and the independent artists who make this community great to meet face to face and support one another in real life. The tour is put on in collaboration with local NPR member stations, aka each city’s public radio DJs and local artist experts, and is a celebration of the entire Contest community. Get your tickets tomorrow, Friday, April 25, at 10 a.m. local time.
The 2025 Tiny Desk Contest is presented by Capital One and supported by the Lagunitas Brewing Company.
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In last week’s Top Shelf episode, Ayana Contreras brought genre-expansive earworms; stripped down, conga-forward hip-hop; and “back porch North Carolina soul.” Watch the episode in full to see her and Bobby discuss how they evaluated entries and spotted the standouts below.
Today, for our fifth and final Top Shelf episode, Bobby will be at the Desk with Bay Area rapper and Tiny Desk alum LaRussell. As an independent artist, LaRussell has a unique perspective on what it takes for artists in this Contest to shine. Not only was his own performance last fall named one of NPR’s 10 best Tiny Desk concerts of 2024, but LaRussell has been on the other side of the camera as well. His independent arts collective Good Compenny produces its own live Backyard Sessions with local Bay Area artists.
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