MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The judges for this year's Tiny Desk Contest had to sort through thousands of entries to pick five finalists. This week, on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, we get to meet those finalists. Here's the latest from Tiny Desk host and series producer Bobby Carter.
BOBBY CARTER, BYLINE: You know, as a judge of the Tiny Desk Contest for a few years now, the No. 1 question I usually get, and most of us get, is what are we looking for in a contestant? And like clockwork, we sort of say the same thing - but it's still true - that we are looking for something that we've never seen or heard before. We're looking sometimes for things that we don't even know we want. And that's what we got in this song called "Welcome" by a Utah group called The King Will Come.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME")
THE KING WILL COME: (Singing) Come on. Welcome. Welcome to the kingdom. Come on in. You are welcome. Welcome to the kingdom. Oh, welcome to the...
CARTER: It is, at its core, worship music. It's gospel, but it also blends a ton of different genres. It's soulful. The lead singer - at least the person who takes the lead on this song, Tamy - it feels very familiar in - when you think about the vocals and the soul and the singing part and the harmonies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME")
THE KING WILL COME: (Singing) Now I'm awakened. You took the solo and gave me purpose.
CARTER: But Tamy does something really, really special here. She starts spitting bars out of nowhere and starts to blend and coast in and out of singing with rapping. And I was just blown away by this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME")
THE KING WILL COME: (Rapping) You lifted me up. Love how you wipe me down. An interception when life throws me around. And no regrets saying, yes, I'm finally found.
(Singing) You lifted me up, broke my curses.
CARTER: This group, The King Will Come, it's comprised of people from all walks of life, all religions, all ethnic backgrounds. And listen, obviously, this - we need more of this in our world today. So I was just super, super delighted to see it near the top with the contest this year. So again, when people ask me what we're looking for, I'm looking to be moved, and I think this song, "Welcome" by The King Will Come, moved me in a profound way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME")
THE KING WILL COME: (Singing) You are welcome.
KELLY: That was NPR Music's Bobby Carter talking about Tiny Desk Contest finalists The King Will Come. You can watch their entry, and many more, at npr.org/tinydeskcontest. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
