Advertisement
Vote for your favorite local NPR Tiny Desk Contest entry
As always, NPR’s search for the next great unsigned artist — also known as the Tiny Desk Contest — drew entries from hundreds of Massachusetts musicians. And as always, WBUR is on the hunt for our Local Favorite.
Over the past month, our panelists diligently listened through many inventive entries from the Bay State: honey-voiced R&B singers, guitar-strumming singer-songwriters, forward-thinking fusionists, and more. We’ve whittled the list down to 17 extraordinary finalists, rounded up in this YouTube playlist, from which we will select WBUR’s Local Favorite.
But first, we want to hear from you! Which song do you think deserves the glory? Scroll down to see the finalists and vote for WBUR’s Fan Favorite. Voting closes at 11:59 pm on June 5.
Meet WBUR’s 2025 Local Tiny Desk Favorite panelists:
- Amelia Mason is a senior arts and culture reporter at WBUR. She has led the search for WBUR’s Local Favorite since 2018.
- Shea Rose is a musician, educator, and curator of Club Passim’s Folk Collective. A professor at Berklee College of Music and embodied voice and yoga coach, she brings a holistic approach to artist development, helping creatives reconnect to their mind, body and creative expression.
- Maddie Browning is the arts reporting fellow at WBUR. She also has bylines in The Boston Globe, Boston.com, Brookline.News and Business Insider.
- Susan Cattaneo is a Boston-based singer-songwriter and award-winning folk artist.
- Marquis Neal is a senior technical director at WBUR. Amongst other things, he moonlights as a talent manager in Boston's music scene.
Here are the top local entries to NPR's Tiny Desk Contest:
- Amanda Mena, "All I Need"
- Anna Vtipil, "too clear"
- Cloudbelly, "Poppa"
- EthnoSphere, "Echoes of the Dunes"
- Jo Saza, "Hoop Dreams"
- Karolina Wilgus, "Absolute"
- kei, "cool it off"
- Padma, "Good Sign"
- Project Mishram, "Mishram"
- Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light, "Wineapple Rind"
- Rijah, "Rush Hour"
- S AND R, "Taste Of The Crown"
- Sanyé Mylo, "Emergency"
- SVMBV, "WOMANIZER"
- Tiril Jackson, "Trueman"
- V V N, "Afriq"
- YANINA, "We're the Clowns"
For updates on the local fan favorite selection and other music news, sign up for our weekly newsletter, The ARTery.
