RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Let's hear now from soul singer John Legend...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL OF ME")
JOHN LEGEND: (Singing) Give your all to me. I'll give my all to you.
MONTAGNE: ...British pop singer Adele.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMEONE LIKE YOU")
ADELE: (Singing) Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
MONTAGNE: And you'll remember from this year's Grammys, Hozier.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE ME TO CHURCH")
HOZIER: (Singing) Take me to church. I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your life. I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife. Offer me that...
MONTAGNE: All of these musicians have in common a tiny turn at a certain tiny desk, tucked away at NPR headquarters. Bob Boilen, who is the host of All Songs Considered, and NPR Music editor, Stephen Thompson, got the idea for the Tiny Desk Concert series at a concert in Austin, Texas. There, they could barely hear singer Laura Gibson over the crowd.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
BOB BOILEN, BYLINE: So she came down off the stage, and Stephen introduced himself to her and her to me.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: Yeah. I just - I just realized that rather than going to shows where very quiet singer-songwriters are drowned out, we could just have them perform at our desks.
MONTAGNE: That was Bob and Stephen back in 2008 at the first ever Tiny Desk Concert where Laura Gibson sang and played guitar for a small group of curious NPR staffers. More than 400 performances later, NPR Music has launched the Tiny Desk Concert contest to find a great, undiscovered musician. They received nearly 7,000 video submissions of bands musicians playing original songs at desks - all sorts of desks all over the place - at the beach, in the woods, in fields, offices and subway stations.
We'll be joined here on MORNING EDITION tomorrow by two of the contest judges, NPR's Bob Boilen and Valerie June, the sultry singer who mixes blues, gospel, country and folk and is a Tiny Desk alum herself. They will announce the winner of the contest, who will get to play their own tiny desk concert.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WORKIN' WOMAN")
VALERIE JUNE: (Singing)Well, I ain't fit to be no mother. I ain't fit to be no wife. I've been working like a man. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
