Sudan Archives and Baby Rose pick their Tiny Desk Contest favorites

On the latest episode of Top Shelf — a series on NPR Music’s YouTube channel highlighting the best entries from the Tiny Desk Contest — Contest judges Sudan Archives and Baby Rose shared their top picks. Having both performed Tiny Desk concerts in early 2020, these Tiny Desk alums know exactly what it takes to make a performance shine. Their Top Shelf selections included artists with impressive musicality, direction and breath control — plus songs about mental health challenges and songs “entrants poured their souls into.”

Brimming with enthusiasm for these up-and-coming artists, the judges highlighted the following entries in episode 3:

• Rijah, “Up” 
• Yosmel Montejo & La Caliente, “Point Of View”
• The Canterberries, “Small Steps” 
• [REDACTED], “Future Homes” 
• Cure For Paranoia, “Unbothered” 
• Ephraim Bugumba, “Delilah” 
• Daniella Faith, “Seven”
• LORD$, “Speed It Up” 
• Rachel Rose, “Back To The Beginning” 
• Eric Penn, “Catastrophic” 

Next week, singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten will share her favorite entries with Tiny Desk series creator Bob Boilen. You can set a reminder for the fourth episode of Top Shelf here.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.