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Our local Tiny Desk search begins
Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
One of the great pleasures of this job is discovering a new musical talent: the surprise, followed by delight, when a voice, a melody, or a perfect turn of phrase stops you in your tracks. The second layer of satisfaction is knowing that the world hasn’t caught on just yet. That, for a moment, this song is yours alone.
This feeling is reliably produced every spring, when I begin my annual search for WBUR’s favorite local Tiny Desk Contest entry. That’s a bit of a mouthful, so allow me to explain. Every year, NPR Music invites independent musicians from all over the U.S. to submit a performance of an original song to the Tiny Desk Contest. The winner gets to perform in NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. Thousands of up-and-coming musicians apply to the Tiny Desk Contest, hundreds from Massachusetts alone. That’s where we come in. While the national contest is underway, we undertake our own search for the best entry from our fair Commonwealth. We call it the Local Tiny Desk Favorite.
It is not a quest I undertake by myself. Since launching the search for WBUR’s Local Tiny Desk Favorite in 2018, I’ve deliberated with four other panelists to choose our top Massachusetts entry. This year, I’m pleased to introduce four excellent local collaborators:
- Jamaica Plain rapper and educator Paul Willis is the author of Hip Hop Leadership — an album, book and curriculum for hip-hop artists, fans and educators alike. When not in the classroom, you can find Willis building community and creating opportunities for youth, families and the region’s creative community through workshops, events and partnerships.
- Pranav Swaroop is an award-winning Boston-based violinist whose work bridges Indian classical tradition with contemporary and global influences through innovative collaborations and performances worldwide. Named one of WBUR's 2024 Makers, he is an active advocate for equity in the arts, advancing access, representation and inclusion in programming.
- Amory Sivertson is a host and senior producer on WBUR's podcast team (Beyond All Repair and Endless Thread) and an independent musician whose work can be streamed everywhere and purchased on Bandcamp.
- Safiya is a Boston Music Award-nominated Caribbean-American vocalist, educator and organizer who performs her own mix of soca, reggae, neo-soul and jazz.
While the panelists deliberate, you, too, can cast your vote. Next week, we will open voting for the Fan Favorite, who will be profiled along with the panel-selected Local Tiny Desk Favorite in June. And don’t forget to reserve your tickets for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest tour, which comes to Boston July 7. Tickets go on sale Friday, April 10!
There’s another kind of satisfaction that comes with this annual exercise. Recently, I stumbled upon a New York Times profile of Anjimile, a singer-songwriter based in Durham, North Carolina. Anjimile got his start in Boston. He was the very first artist to be chosen as our Local Tiny Desk Favorite, way back in 2018. Anjimile submitted a stripped-down version of his song “1978,” a delicate, enrapturing ode to his grandmother. Even without fancy recording equipment or slick camera tricks, his vision back then was apparent. How gratifying to witness Anjimile’s growing success – and to be able to say, “I knew him when.”
