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Artists from around the world have performed NPR Tiny Desk concerts, ranging from Harry Styles to Feist to Nelly Furtado and more. But not Grammy- and Juno-winning singer Alessia Cara, who shared that Tiny Desk had rejected her, prompting her to create a giant desk concert instead.
“Well Tiny Desk said no to me a couple times so I exercised free will and built my own!” she wrote on Instagram in a caption below photos of her with her band.
Cara began the video by explaining, “Tiny Desk has refused to have me on many a time, many times, so I decided to make my own. Tiny Desk, my desk is bigger than yours.”
She then kicked the set off with a relaxed and jazz-inflected version of Middle Ground, from her 2021 album In the Meantime.
She also played an intimate version of I’m in Trouble, from her most recent album, Love or Lack Thereof, and the love song Nighttime Thing from 2025’s Love & Hyperbole. Other songs such as Shapeshifter, were also pared down and performed.
WATCH | Alessia Cara’s giant desk concert:
Cara was also recently on Canada Soccer’s Boi-1da produced album, What If It All Goes Right?, which was released on June 5. She sings on the track In My Hands.
WATCH | The audio for In My Hands:
In an interview with the Canadian Press, Boi-1da said, “We have the biggest artists in the world. We have the best artists ever,” about the album.
