Ali Wong's 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts

By Ali Wong

Published October 22, 2020 at 4:00 AM CDT

For Tiny Desk Playlists, we ask musicians, creators and folks we admire to choose the Tiny Desk concerts they've come to love. For this edition, comedian, actress and author Ali Wong picks her five favorites — and spoiler alert: She loves slow jams.

Wong rose to fame in 2016, thanks to her hit stand-up Netflix special, Ali Wong: Baby Cobra. In 2019, she wrote, produced and starred in Always Be My Maybe, which we thoroughly enjoyed. She also became an author last year, publishing a book of letters to her two young daughters, titled Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life. We're big fans of Wong and are humbled to learn that she and her daughters enjoy jamming and singing along to Tiny Desks. —Maia Stern

• Daniel Caesar

"I watch the duet with H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar singing "Best Part" all the time with my daughters. The oldest, Mari, knows all the words and often likes to lip-sync to it with her stuffed toy microphone. It's a very romantic performance and I always look forward to when he brings her closer to the microphone."

• dvsn

"I had never heard of dvsn before, but I've become a huge fan since watching and body rolling to this Tiny Desk concert. I love the part where he encourages the audience to repeat after him and that the NPR Tiny Desk staff is too shy to sing that super sexy high-pitched harmony. This is also some of the most elaborate lighting I've seen for a Tiny Desk concert. The electric candles crack me up."

• Erykah Badu

"Erykah Badu is a majestic goddess. It's really inspiring as a fellow mother to see her expand and grow. I could watch her sing the word "tomato" repeatedly for an entire song and still be absolutely riveted."

• Anthony Hamilton

"Best of Me" is one of my favorite songs and I dance to this particular performance of it often with my husband in our living room. You can tell that Anthony Hamilton still loves singing it, too."

• H.E.R.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm very into sexy slow jams! So naturally, I love H.E.R. and this incredible Tiny Desk concert only made me more intrigued and enamored."