“El Tiny” recently completed its third takeover of NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series during Latinx Heritage Month. Produced by the Alt.Latino team, “El Tiny” featured eight acts from various corners of the Latino community.
The 2023 lineup included performances by Rawayana, J Noa, DannyLux, Alex Cuba, Villano Antillano, Ivy Queen, Becky G and an additional performance by Maluma.
NPR Music has produced the Tiny Desk series since 2008 at the direction of former “All Songs Considered” host Bob Boilen. Though the show has gained a following, with some videos garnering millions of views on YouTube, the series also has been criticized for its narrowed music genres.
Felix Contreras, co-host of Alt.Latino, has been trying to change that narrative since the start of the Latino music radio show in 2010.
Before “El Tiny” was officially created, Contreras brought Latino acts to the forefront of Tiny Desk, including French-born Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux, Colombian superstar Juanes and Mexican American group La Santa Cecilia.
The idea for a Tiny Desk takeover during Latinx Heritage Month was well-received by NPR management given the audience for Latino artists who were already coming to the show during the regular season.
“Natalia Lafourcade is one of the most viewed Tiny Desk concerts of any genre,” Contreras said. The Mexican folk singer garnered more than 29 million views since her performance was uploaded to YouTube in 2017.
Contreras, alongside co-host Anamaria Artemisa Sayre, decided to lean into this success, drawing inspiration from senior producer Bobby Carter, who has brought “so many culture-shifting artists, so many Black artists” to NPR, Sayre said.
“[Let’s] see what kind of results we get from doing a concentrated block of Latino artists of different styles and different genres at one time,” Contreras said.
Sayre joined the Alt.Latino team three years ago with the same goal as Contreras: bringing in more Latino engagement, acknowledging the “whiteness” of NPR.
“Tiny Desk definitely originally started with a majority of more white artists, white bands, but the audience is incredibly diverse,” Sayre said.
“[Latinos] really value music. We value sharing music. We value seeing people in a more intimate space, so the audience is already there,” she added.
The name “El Tiny” stuck after a member of Jorge Drexler’s band used it to affectionately describe the desk during their 2018 performance.
In 2021, the “El Tiny” concert series began with only Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts due to the pandemic. The format allowed for 10 artist performances, kicking off the season with Colombian reggaetónero J Balvin and closing with Cuban Mexican pop-star Camila Cabello.
Alt.Latino moved to a hybrid format in 2022 with both in-studio and at-home concerts, starting with Mexican American singer-songwriter Omar Apollo and finishing with Puerto Rican rapper and singer Farruko.
This is the first year that all “El Tiny” performances took place at the NPR headquarters in Washington D.C.
From the regional music of DannyLux to the jazzy funk pop of Alex Cuba or the powerful rap vocals of Villano Antillano, “El Tiny” wanted to cover the depth of Latino music.
“This year was a lot more focused on [getting] music that really reflects where we are as a community, as a genre, as a style,” Sayre said.
The series opened with Rawayana, a Venezuelan band formed in Caracas with funky reggae beats. The band describes its music with the self-coined term “trippy pop.”
“[They’re] these young Venezuelan artists who grew up in the midst of the conflict in Venezuela,” Sayre said.
The band channels the experience of growing up in an authoritarian Venezuela but also “dials up the joy” and love for the country, Sayre said.
Between sets, vocalist Alberto “Beto” Montenegro lets the audience know that the band has tequeños for everyone, a traditional Venezuelan breaded cheese snack.
“In our country we love to eat tequeños while we listen to music,” Montenegro said during the performance.
This “El Tiny” season was a first for many artists, like J Noa. The 17-year-old rapper performed for the first time outside of the Dominican Republic.
“When we saw some of her performances and then listened to her music, [I said,] ‘Oh this is really good’ but then she came and it was even more powerful,” Contreras said.
J Noa’s song “Autodidacta,” which was included in her “El Tiny” set, has been nominated in the rap/hip-hop song category at the 2023 Latin Grammys.
“It was the whole idea of being able to introduce the audience to new music,” Contreras said.
Though the goal is to keep introducing the NPR audience to new artists, Contreras and Sayre also brought in Latino legends Ivy Queen, Becky G and Maluma, all of whom were performing at the desk for the first time.
Contreras had been trying to get reggaeton legend Ivy Queen to Tiny Desk for years, but it never coincided with her schedule.
This third “El Tiny” takeover finally was able to reel in La Caballota.
“It’s not the same to sing in a studio and sing here,” Ivy Queen said to the audience before lighting up a candle with her image and that of artist Bad Bunny.
“People have the rabbit’s foot. I have all of Benito,” Ivy Queen said, placing the candle near her drink, which she says is holy water to “control the emotions.”
Before singing an orchestral version of her single “La Vida Es Asi,” she encouraged the audience to sing along.
“If you know it, sing it. There are no rules here,” she said.
Contreras and Sayre can confirm that there are no rules at “El Tiny,” but panic did hit hours before the “Quiero Bailar” singer performed.
“Everyone kept walking by the desk and being like, ‘Wait, there’s no drums out, there’s no drums out!’” Sayre said.
“I walked in … and I looked at the set, the Tiny Desk area. I’m like, ‘Oh, where’s the drums? At least the drum machine, the drum pad, right? And where’s the sequencer?’” Contreras said.
“I was like, ‘No, no, no, don’t worry. It’s Ivy Queen, she can do it.’ And she did it. She did it with strings and a piano and her voice,” Sayre added.
Ivy Queen’s performance alongside just a piano and a string quartet has garnered more than 1.1 million views since its upload to YouTube a month ago.
“Success at the desk is really just someone who comes and shows something so different from what you’re accustomed to hearing or seeing from them,” Sayre said.
Likewise, that success has been achieved by the “El Tiny” takeover and its efforts in bringing forward Latino musical acts that otherwise would not have the spotlight.