PinkPantheress delivered her first ever performance for NPR's long-running Tiny Desk Concert series last week, visiting NPR HQ to present a varied setlist that translated her largely electronic TikTok hits into instrument-led arrangements featuring double bass, acoustic guitar and even harmonica.
A vocalist, songwriter and accomplished producer, PinkPantheress – like many modern artists – usually performs using pitch-correction software such as Antares Auto-Tune on her vocals. But, as she revealed to the audience for the Tiny Desk Concert, the NPR show marked her first ever performance without Auto-Tune, a prospect that she admits left her feeling "nervous".
"This is my first performance I've done with no tuning," PinkPantheress reveals at 6:29. "I've never sung with no tuning before, so this is really scary." She then admits that she almost backed out of the performance after NPR informed her she wasn't permitted to use Auto-Tune, but ultimately chose to go ahead regardless.
"I nearly didn't do this, because the NPR people were like you can't use anything, actually. No, nothing," PinkPantheress continues. "And I was like, 'okay but I need all these things!' But then I was like, 'okay, let me try it and figure it out and see how it goes'. It's been so fun doing this and going through this process."
Auto-Tuned or not, PinkPantheress' vocals made a wholly positive impression on viewers, with many in the comments praising her polished performance. "I can't believe she did this, to be honest," commented YouTube user @honestlykyle. "Most artists who create the kind of effect-heavy music that she does wouldn't have the courage to do a performance this stripped-back. It's incredibly impressive."
While PinkPantheress refers to vocal tuning software as "Auto-Tune" - the brand name for a popular pitch-correction tool from software developer Antares that has become a colloquial term for the technology as a whole – it's not clear whether she used Antares' software in the performance, or a different product.
Along with her use of vocal effects, PinkPantheress is also known for recording songs with consistently short durations, having previously claimed that a song "doesn't need to be longer than 2 minutes 30 seconds". As PinkPantheress explains, this ended up working in her favour for the Tiny Desk Concert, allowing her to squeeze an eight-song setlist into the 20-minute performance NPR asked for.
"This is the first time having a short discography has actually played to my strengths," she says. "They had to make the set under 20 minutes, and I said: 'I got y'all!'"
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