Morning Edition: Music

Throughout this pandemic, MPR News has been asking Minnesota musicians to send us a song and an update on how they’re doing. Take a scroll and listen to some of the artists we’ve heard from so far.

Caitlyn Smith — a native of Cannon Falls, Minn. — is out with her second album, Supernova, today.

The back-to-back-to-back shows will mark the grand opening of a new theater space in downtown Minneapolis.

Every year, NPR Music invites unsigned artists from all over the country to apply to its Tiny Desk Contest. Thousands submit videos, and the team at NPR picks just one winner.

Poliça’s new album, “When We Stay Alive,” comes out on Friday. It’s the band’s first since singer Channy Leaneagh fell last winter while trying to clear ice dams from the roof of her home in Minneapolis.

“We Are The World” was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, and it was designed to raise money and awareness around a famine in Ethiopia. The song became an immediate hit. It won a Grammy and raised more than $63 million in humanitarian aid for Africa and the United States.

Guitarist Mick Jones later told Songfacts that he wrote the song about the search for love that could last, after going through a series of relationships that eventually ended.

It was a bit of a gimmick. He wanted to force himself to write new songs, so he said he'd use the tour to officially retire his old hits. He promised to never play them again on stage.

The title track to that record was an unusual hit.

Smith grew up in Detroit Lakes, and played in the Twin Cities music scene for years. Local fans were upset when she decided to relocate to L.A. several years ago, but Smith has said it was one of the best moves she’s ever made for her career.