Earlier this month, we at NPR Music announced the winner of the 2016 edition of the Tiny Desk Contest: a fiddle player and singer from Duluth, Minn., named Gaelynn Lea. Like the thousands of other contestants, she'd sent us a video of herself performing an original song at a desk — in Lea's case, a love song called "Someday We'll Linger In The Sun," which she played in her office. Last week, we were honored to welcome Lea to the Tiny Desk here in Washington, D.C., where she demonstrated to everyone in the room why she'd caught our team's ears.
As our panel of judges (Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton, Dan Auerbach, Jess Wolfe, Son Little and Holly Laessig) worked tirelessly to whittle more than 6,100 entries down to a single winner, the two of us had a bit of an easier task. We curated the Tiny Desk Contest Tumblr, where we were able to share more of the incredible music and videos our entrants dreamed up. After all, the Tiny Desk Contest really isn't just about one winner. It's about letting the creative light of an entire community shine.
In that spirit, we've collected a few highlights out of the many videos we loved. These 10 selections — and all the other eligible entries, which you can browse freely — are proof of all the talent this country harbors, just under the radar, waiting to be discovered.
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