NPR

The Best Tiny Desk Concerts Of 2018

Watch 25 of the year's greatest, most surprising Tiny Desk performances, featuring just a sampling of the gifted artists who passed through NPR Music's office this year.
Mac Miller performs a Tiny Desk Concert on Aug. 1, 2018.

The NPR Music offices in Washington, D.C., published 127 Tiny Desk concerts this year — 128 if you count the time we thought you'd enjoy watching our piano tuner strut his stuff on April Fools' Day. So narrowing the year down to a Top 10 was impossible, and then it felt terribly wrong to include just 20. So here are 25 of the year's greatest and most surprising Tiny Desk performances: the discoveries who blossomed before our eyes, the veterans who transcended mere victory laps, and just some of the gifted and generous artists who passed through and made the world feel bigger, kinder, more open.

In the year we celebrated the Tiny Desk's 10th anniversary, we could have packed this list with nothing but power players, from rock stars (Dave Matthews, St. Vincent) to Latin stars (Cafe Tacvba, Jorge Drexler) to pop stars (Florence + The Machine) to rap stars (, ) to bluegrass stars (). Instead, presented chronologically, here's an incomplete but discovery-packed survey of the year in Tiny Desk concerts — music that made us dance, cheer, tear up or otherwise feel profoundly grateful for the opportunity to share and revel in it all.

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