Latest news with #TinyDeskConcert
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Doechii's Glastonbury slot is all part of her five-year plan
In 2023, Doechii announced she was three years into her five-year plan for becoming one of the biggest names in music."By year five I want to be at my peak," she told Billboard magazine."I want to be in my Sasha Fierce era, the top of my game with still a long way to go - but I want to reach my prime and never leave it."Back then, it felt like a bold claim. The Florida-born rapper and singer had scored a couple of viral hits - most notably Persuasive, an ode to marijuana that ended up on Barack Obama's summer playlist - but nothing that had crossed over to the mainstream jump-cut to 2025 and Doechii is a Grammy Award-winning "woman of the year", who's about to play one of the most hotly-anticipated sets at Glastonbury hard to identify the turning point. Some people say it was her mesmerising performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last her hair carefully braided to her backing dancers, she delivered a meticulously-choreographed performance of Boiled Peanuts and Denial Is a River - a cartoonish character piece, in which she confides to her therapist that her boyfriend's been cheating on her with another man. Others pinpoint her Tiny Desk Concert, released on YouTube two days later. The 15-minute set bursts with joie de vivre, simultaneously soulful and fiery, as the star rattles through jazzy, full-band recreations of her mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal. She won even more fans at the Grammys in March, where she won best rap album, making her just the third female artist to win in the her speech, she spoke directly to young, black, queer women like her: "Don't allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, to tell you that you can't be here, that you're too dark or that you're not smart enough or that you're too dramatic or you're too loud."She capped off her win with an ultra-physical performance that referenced Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott and Bob Fosse - and ended with her pulling the splits while being held aloft by five male dancers. With three "star-is-born" performances in just four months, Doechii became the most talked-about new rapper of her generation... just like she planned. So where did it all start? Doechii was born Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon in Tampa, Florida and raised in a "heavily Christian" single-parent household by her mother, Celesia Moore.A studious kid who loved writing poetry, she invented her alter-ego at the age of 11, after being viciously bullied in school."I was in a position where I thought about killing myself because the bullying was so bad," she told Dazed magazine in February."Then I had this realisation: I'm not gonna do that, because then they're gonna all get a chance to live and I'm gonna be the one dead."Overnight, her attitude shifted."Jaylah might've been getting bullied, but I decided Doechii wouldn't stand for that," she recalled in an interview with Vulture. "And then," she told The Breakfast Club, "I went to school in a tutu and I started doing music." As a teenager, she spent four years at Tampa's Howard W. Blake School of the Arts, after winning a place on the choral programme by performing Etta James' At Last. The school unlocked her creativity, allowing her to take classes in everything from nail design and hair, to ballet, tap, cheerleading and stage production. However, it was gymnastics that left the biggest impression."The way that gymnasts train is really, really tough. It's brutal and hard and difficult," she told Gay Times. "But at some point in my gymnastic career I learnt how to embrace and really love pain. To view pain as me getting stronger and better. That caused a deep discipline that has never left me."The school also helped the teenager accept her sexuality."Even though I was aware [that I was queer], I didn't feel as comfortable until I started surrounding myself with more gay friends at my school. "Once I had gay friends it was like, 'OK, I can be myself, I'm good, I can feel safe, this is normal, I'm fine.' I have those same friends today and will have them for life."That's not all they gave her: Those same friends convinced Doechii to give up her ambitions of becoming a chorister, and start writing and releasing her own music. Initially called iamdoechii, she uploaded her first song to Soundcloud in 2016, and released her debut single Girls two years later. It already bore the hallmarks of her best work: Rhythmically and lyrically dextrous, and chock full of personality. "Taking nudes / None of them for you," she chided over a mellow electric piano, before the beat switched up and her rapping became more frenetic. By the closing bars, she barely had time catch breath as she listed her accomplishments. "Making money from my phone, huh / Doechii finally in her zone."The lines were more prophecy than reality. Doechii had a solid following on YouTube, but she was still working at Zara to make ends meet. In 2019, she was booked for a showcase in New York City and hopped on a bus - without the money for her return trip. "The night after, I slept at a McDonald's," she recalled in a 2022 interview. "And then I had to call one of my mom's friends... and, like, beg her to let me sleep at her house. And I ended up living there until I got back on my feet." 'Drowning in vices' Things started to turn around with the release of 2020's Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, named after Junie B. Jones's children's book, in which Doechii sketched out her own to the lyrics, she was precocious ("I try to act smart 'cause I want a lot of friends"), competitive ("I get a little violent when I play the game of tag") and frequently broke ("My momma used stamps 'cause she need a little help").The song marked a breakthrough in her writing."I was lacking this sense of vulnerability and honesty in my music," she told Billboard, until "I learned accuracy and just saying exactly what it is, like on Lucky Blucky Fruitcake".The song went viral, winning her a record deal with Top Dawg Entertainment - the label that launched Kendrick Lamar and SZA. She followed it up with the effortlessly hooky Persuasive, earning praise from SZA (who jumped on a remix) and former President Barack Obama."I can't imagine Obama just jamming my song," she exclaimed. "I just don't believe it, but if he really does – that's crazy." Doechii next collaborated with Kodak Black on the 2023 single What It Is (Block Boy), earning her first Top 40 hit. Then, everything stalled. Subsequent singles flopped, and Doechii was, as she later wrote on social media, "drowning in my own vices, battling differences with my label and a creative numbness that broke me".Initially, her Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape looked set to repeat the pattern. Released last August, it entered the US charts at number 117 and vanished a week reviews were ecstatic. Critics loved the acerbic, funny lyrics, that saw Doechii unpack the trials and tribulations of the last two years; and heaped praise on bars that recalled greats such as Q-Tip, Lauryn Hill and Slick Rick, while keeping pace with contemporaries like Kendrick Lamar. After a period dominated by the mumbled bars of Souncloud rap, her precision was a breath of fresh air."One of the year's most fully-realized breakout albums," wrote Rolling Stone. "If this is the sound of Doechii pushing against constraints, a little friction might not be the worst thing," added Pitchfork. As word spread, she was booked to play the Colbert show and Tiny Desk. Those performances lit a rocket under her career. By April, Alligator had chomped into the US Top 10, and the UK Top 40. Around the same time, she bowed to fan pressure by releasing her 2019 YouTube song, Anxiety, a pop-rap crossover based on a sample of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know. With an eye-catching video that recreated a full-on panic attack, it hit number three in the UK, and even earned Doechii a citation in medical journal Psychology Today."The song and accompanying video work so well in showing exactly how anxiety feels in our bodies and minds," wrote Professor Sandra Chafouleas. "Think about quick and short breaths, racing thoughts, and worrying about things that haven't happened yet. Anxiety feels like 'Anxiety' sounds, with brilliant mirroring of how the experience can hijack us."Since then, Doechii's been hard at work on her debut album. There'd been rumours she'd release it in time for her Glastonbury slot on Saturday night, but perfectionists have got to perfect. At the time of writing, she's still in the to Dazed, she dropped a few hints of what's in store. "In Alligator Bites Never Heals, the archetype was a student of hip-hop. For this next project, I'm thinking about how this student develops. "Who does she develop into? What has she learned? I'm still unpacking how that character develops into this next project."Despite the delay, Doechii's headline set remains one of Glastonbury's biggest draws. She might only be performing for 45 minutes, but she'll make every one of them the star boasted on her single Nosebleeds: "Will she ever lose? Man, I guess we'll never know."
UPI
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
Watch: Alex Isley performs 'Good & Plenty' at Tiny Desk concert
1 of 3 | Alex Isley arrives on the red carpet for BET Awards on June 9. NPR released her Tiny Desk Concert performance on Monday. Photo by Greg Grudt/UPI | License Photo June 23 (UPI) -- Alex Isley performed her hit "Good & Plenty" for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series in a new episode released Monday. She invited singer and musician Masego to join her on that song, which dropped in 2020. "I shot a Tiny Desk at home in 2020, so to be here in the office is just magical. I'm happy to be here, and celebrating the release of my new EP When, but also celebrating 10 years of my album Luxury," Isley said. When dropped April 18, and Isley performed "Mic On" and "Thank You for a Lovely Time" from the EP. She performed "La Brea," from Luxury. Her set list also included "Into Orbit," "Love Again," "Mine," "About Him" and "Hands." Isley was joined by background vocalists Nelson Beato, Astyn Turr and Muhsinah, and DeShaun Allen on drums. Jay Rojas played guitar, with Dre Pinckney on bass and Darek Cobbs on the keyboard. Isley, 38, is the daughter of the Isley Brothers' Ernie Isley. NPR is spotlighting Black music artists in June's Tiny Desks for their Black Music Month.
IOL News
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Thandiswa Mazwai Tiny Desk Concert reaches 1 million views
Thandiswa Mazwai alongside a jazz quartet will be performing music from her albums "Belede" and "Sankofa" at The Lyric Theatre at Johannesburg's Gold Reef City. Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers South African music legend Thandiswa Mazwai's episode on the National Public Radio (NPR) Tiny Desk Concert series has reached 1 million views. Affectionately known as 'King Tha,' she appeared on the popular YouTube show in April 2024. Her episode was listed among the '10 Best Tiny Desk Concerts of 2024'. Mazwai had delivered a spiritual and breathtaking Tiny Desk performance in Washington, D.C., performing her well-known and cherished hits such as 'Nizalwa Ngobani?' and 'Ingoma.' The episode reaching 1 million views comes ahead of her show at The Lyric Theatre at Johannesburg's Gold Reef City. Playing with a Jazz quartet, the icon will be performing music from her albums 'Belede' and 'Sankofa' on Sunday, June 29. Mazwai shared her excitement about performing the body of works. 'It is a special treat for our fans who always ask to see this music live. 'Belede' is of course, a very special album for me and we are also celebrating a year since the release of 'Sankofa'.' 'Belede' is Mazwai's third solo studio album, released in 2016, a collection of reinterpretations of legendary South African Jazz and protest anthems from the 1950s and 1960s. 'Sankofa' is Mazwai's fourth studio album and was released in May 2024. 'Sankofa' is a Ghanaian Twi word that means 'to go back and fetch what has been left behind'. The making of this record embodied that idea. Recorded in Johannesburg, Dakar, and New York, the album combines archival Xhosa samples (which were sourced from the International Library of African Music at Rhodes University), jazz and West African music. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Mazwai shared that 'Within those ancient rhythms and polyrhythms, a common lexicon revealed itself to me and I am excited to share this music with those who have been growing and evolving with me. 'It is about a celebration of the pan-African spirit, healing old wounds, and returning to what honours us." 'Belede' and 'Sankofa' have a strong jazz influence and Mazwai's show will put together a special lineup of musicians to celebrate some of the people who played and the influences that created the music. IOL Entertainment
Fast Company
31-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
How NPR's Tiny Desk became the biggest stage in music
Until last October, Argentinian musical duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso were more or less a regional act. Known for their experimental blend of Latin trap, pop, and rap, the pair had a fanbase, but still weren't cracking more than 3,000 daily streams across services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Within a week, they shot up 4,700%—hitting 222,000 daily streams—according to exclusive data firm Luminate, which powers the Billboard charts. Suddenly Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso were global pop stars. What changed? On Oct. 4, the pair were featured in a Tiny Desk Concert, part of NPR's 17-year-old video series featuring musicians performing stripped-down sets behind an office desk in the cramped Washington, D.C. headquarters of the public broadcaster. In the concert video, the artists play five songs from their debut album Baño Maria, which came out last April. Paco's raspy voice emerges from underneath a puffy blue trapper hat while Ca7riel sports an over-the-top pout and a vest made of stitched-together heart-shaped plush toys. The pair sing entirely in Spanish, backed by their Argentinian bandmates (sporting shirts screenprinted with their visas) and an American horn section. The duo's performance quickly took off across the internet. Within five days, it had racked up more than 1.5 million views on YouTube, and hit 11 million in little more than a month. It also reverberated across social media: the NPR Music Instagram post garnering nearly 900,000 likes, and TikToks clips garnered hundreds of thousands of views. In a year that featured Tiny Desk performances from buzzy stars like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, as well as established acts like Chaka Khan and Nelly Furtado, Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso's concert was the most-watched of 2024. It currently sits at 36 million views. That virality translated to an influx of bookings for the duo, including a performance at Coachella in April, and upcoming slots at Glastonbury in June, FujiRock Japan in July, and Lollapalooza and Outside Lands in August. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso's global tour includes sold-out dates at Mexico's 20,000-capacity Palacio de los Deportes and Chile's 14,000-seat Movistar Areana—and was previewed by an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in April. 'Through Tiny Desk, we've noticed media approaching us, promoters being very interested in offering their spaces and festivals, and many media outlets opening doors to show us to the world,' says Jonathan Izquierdo, the band's Spain-based tour manager who began working with the duo shortly after the Tiny Desk Concert debuted. 'We've managed to sell out summer arena shows in record time and we're constantly adding new concerts. Promoters are knocking on our doors to get the Tiny Desk effect.' Tiny Desk, Big Influence The Tiny Desk effect is something Bobby Carter, NPR Tiny Desk host and series producer, has seen firsthand. Carter has been at NPR for 25 years, including the past 11 on the Tiny Desk team. He took the reins when Bob Boilen, the longtime All Songs Considered host who launched Tiny Desk in 2008, retired in 2023. The series—which now has more than 1,200 videos—began as an internet-first way for Boilen to showcase performances from musicians that were more intimate than what happens in bigger concert venues. The first installment, featuring folk artist Laura Gibson, went up on YouTube. Today, the concerts are posted on the NPR site with a writeup and credits, as well as YouTube, where NPR Music has 11 million followers. NPR Music also clips installments on Instagram, where it has 3 million followers. In the early days, NPR staff reached out to touring bands to secure bookings. Acts coming through DC could often be cajoled into filming an installment before heading out to their venues for that night's sound check. Now, musicians come to DC just for the chance to record in NPR's offices. 'We don't have to worry about tours anymore,' Carter says. 'Labels and artists are willing to come in solely for a Tiny Desk performance. They understand the impact that a really good Tiny Desk concert can have on an artist's career.' Early on, the stripped-down nature of the Tiny Desk—artists can't use any audio processing or voice modulation—lent itself to rock, folk, and indie acts. But a 2014 concert with T-Pain, in which the famously autotune-heavy singer unveiled an impressive set of pipes, showed how artists from a broader array of genres could shine behind the Tiny Desk. 'Everyone knows at this point that they're going to have to do something different in our space,' Carter says. 'It's a bigger ask for hip-hop acts and electronic acts, but most artists now understand how important it can be if they nail it.' Carter highlights rapper Doechii as an artist who overhauled her sound for her Tiny Desk concert in December. Doechii's all-female backing band used trumpet, saxophone, guitar, and bass to transform songs from her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal for the live setting. 'If you listen to the recorded version of her music, it's nothing like what you saw in that Tiny Desk,' Carter says. Clips of Doechii's Tiny Desk virtuosity lit up social media, introducing the 'swamp princess' to new fans. The concert even inspired a viral parody, with writer-director-comedian Gus Heagary pretending to be an NPR staffer watching the performance. Reimagining Old Favorites It isn't just emerging acts that totally revamp their sound for a Tiny Desk opportunity. Established artists like Usher, Justin Timberlake, and Cypress Hill have followed T-Pain's lead and used NPR's offices to showcase reimagined versions of some of their most popular songs. When Juvenile recorded his installment in June 2023, he was backed by horns and saxophones, a violin and cello, and John Batiste on melodica. The New Orleans rapper played an acoustic version of 'Back That Azz Up' twice at the audience's request—the first encore in the series' history. 'I love what has happened with hip hop [on Tiny Desk],' Carter says. He explains that artists now approach the concert with the mindset: 'I have to really rethink what I've been doing for however long I've been doing it, and present it in a whole new way.' Tiny Desk has also helped musicians like Juvenile, gospel artist Marvin Sapp, and percussionist Sheila E to reach new audiences while reminding listeners they're still making music. 'We're helping artists to re-emerge,' Carter says, 'tapping into legacy acts and evergreen artists [to help] breathe new life into their careers.' In many ways, Tiny Desk now occupies a niche once filled by MTV Unplugged —but for the generation that has replaced cable with YouTube and streaming. 'Maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, all of our favorite artists had this watershed moment in terms of a live performance,' Carter says. 'Back in the day it was MTV Unplugged. SNL is still doing their thing. But when you think about the generation now that lives on YouTube, some of these Tiny Desk performances are going to be the milestone that people point to when it comes to live performances.' Building a Diverse Audience When Carter talks about Tiny Desk concerts reaching a new generation of listeners, it's not conjecture. He notes that the NPR Music YouTube channel's 11 million subscribers are 'as young and diverse as it gets. It's almost half people of color [and] much younger than the audience that listens to NPR on air, which is an audience NPR has been trying to tap for a long time,' he says. That diversity informs some of the special series that Tiny Desk produces. The Juvenile video was part of Carter's second run of concerts recorded for Black Music Month, in June. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso's video was tied to El Tiny, a Latin-focused series that debuts during Latin Heritage Month (from mid September to mid October) and is programmed by Tiny Desk producer and host AnaMaria Sayer. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso's tour manager, Izquierdo, has worked with artists featured in the series before. He says Tiny Desk is crucial for Latin American artists trying to break through. 'I've realized that for U.S. radio, Latin music benefits from Tiny Desk,' he says. The Tiny Desk audience's broad demographics are also increasingly reflected in its broader programming. Bad Bunny's April installment took his reggaeton-inspired songs from recent album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos to their acoustic roots, using an array of traditional Puerto Rican, Latin American, and Caribbean instruments, such as the cuatro puertorriqueño, tiple, güicharo, and bongos. '[Our] audience informs a whole lot of what we do,' Carter says. I get so many pointers from YouTube comments like 'Have you heard of this artist?' We're watching all that stuff because it helps us stay sharp.' Tiny Desk heard round the world With a strong global audience, Tiny Desk has been expanding into Asia. In 2023, NPR struck a licensing deal with South Korean Telecom LG U+ and production company Something Special to produce Tiny Desk Korea for television. Last year, NPR inked a deal with the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) to launch Tiny Desk Concerts Japan. 'We're really expanding in terms of global reach,' Carter says. Here in the States, Carter and Sayer recently launched Tiny Desk Radio, a series that will revisit some of the series' notable installments, sharing behind-the-scenes stories from their productions and playing the audio from the concerts 'Our engineers put a lot of time and effort into making sure that we sound great,' Carter says. 'I hear it a lot—people tell me they prefer an artist's Tiny Desk over anything.' That's something Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso clearly have on their mind as they navigate the Tiny Desk effect and a new level of recognition (their daily streams haven't dipped below 50,000 a day since the beginning of the year). The duo released an EP in February, Papota, which features four new songs, plus the recorded versions of their pared-down Tiny Desk performances. They also released a short film that recreates their Tiny Desk performance—this time in a Buenos Aires diner. One of the themes of the EP is the pair wrestling with the implications of their viral success. On the song Impostor, Ca7riel asks '¿Y ahora que vamos hacer?/El tiny desk me jodio' (What do we do now? Tiny Desk fucked me up.) It's an overstatement, but an acknowledgment that the path they're now on ran directly through the NPR offices.
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GMA Network
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Ruby Ibarra performs her Tiny Desk Concert at NPR!
Ruby Ibarra continues to do the Philippines proud! The Fil-Am rapper (and scientist) just performed at NPR's super popular Tiny Desk Concert in Washington D.C., which is among her prizes for winning NPR's Tiny Desk Contest. Ruby and the all-Filipino band she assembled for the gig performed three songs — her winning entry "Bakunawa," "7,000 miles," and "Someday" — and repped the Philippines through and through. Where "Bakunawa" had her rapping in English, Tagalog, and Bisaya, "7,000 miles" had her talking about "my journey, of everything I've witness I've felt, and I've held from that distance from the Philippines to America." She ended the song by introducing herself triumphantly: "From Tacloban City, Philippines all the way to Washington DC, my name is Ruby Ibarra. Mama, I made it in America." Ruby closed off her set with "Someday," the song she used when she first entered the Tiny Desk Contest six years ago. "We didn't win at that time, and I admit I was heartbroken. Winning this time around feels so much better," Ruby said, adding "that journey in between those six years has allowed me to see myself more clearly. To recognize I never have to compromise my art and I never have to ask permission to be myself." "That journey has been everything," Ruby said, adding with flair: "This last song is called 'Someday,' but today is the day." Ruby won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest earlier in May, besting nearly 7,500 entries, "a record for the project, now in its 11th year," NPR said. Apart from the opportunity to perform her own Tiny Desk Concert, Ruby will also go on a 10-city tour. When Ruby and her family migrated to the US in 1991, her parents brought with them only one record: Francis Magalona's "Yo." She was only two years old then, and when she turned five, she was introduced to Francis M. "What attracted me were the melody and the tone of resistance. It's really the voice of the youth and the unheard. It's an expression that empowers people." And now Ruby's on NPR, repping the Philippines so beautifully. We say don't sleep on Ruby. Our fearless prediction is she's going to take on the world soon. — LA, GMA Integrated News
