Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf: Watch Our Judges' Favorite Entries Every Week

Since its inception in 2014, the Tiny Desk Contest has introduced us to so many talented up-and-coming artists. And we've invited tons of them to play at the Tiny Desk: our winners, of course, like Gaelynn Lea and Tank and the Bangas — and other impressive artists, too, like Haley Heynderickx and Scott Mulvahill. Next Thursday, June 11, we're launching a new series to help you hear even more of them.

Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf is a livestream series that will be part interview, part listening party and will feature the best 2020 Tiny Desk Contest entries, chosen by the Contest judges. In each episode, Bob Boilen and a special guest (including the 2020 Tiny Desk Contest judges) will be live on NPR Music's YouTube channel, watching their favorite Contest entries and talking about what makes them stand out from the thousands we received this year. Sometimes, they'll even interview the featured artists.

This will be the first time we're inviting the Contest community and fans of music discovery to get in on the magic and join our judges as they decide who will be the next great undiscovered artist to perform behind the Tiny Desk. We'll have a new live episode on our YouTube channel every Thursday at 3 p.m. ET from June 11-July 30. After that, we'll announce the 2020 Tiny Desk Contest winner.

Here's the lineup of each episode's co-host:

• June 11: Bobby Carter of NPR Music
• June 18: Brittany Howard
• June 25: Raina Douris of WXPN
• July 2: Quinn Christopherson (winner of the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest)
• July 9: Tarik Moody of 88Nine Radio Milwuakkee
• July 16: Gina Chavez
• July 23: Rita Houston of WFUV
• July 30: Kevin Cole of KEXP

You can learn more — and get weekly reminders when our episodes are going live — at topshelf.nprpresents.org.

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