See Ne-Yo Showcase Hits-Filled Songwriting Catalog With Tiny Desk Concert

Ne-Yo performed his own hits, singles he penned for artists like Rihanna and Beyoncé, and debuted a new song during the R&B singer’s Tiny Desk concert that NPR Music shared Friday.

The hitmaker and his eight-person backing band kicked off the 23-minute set with a trio of his 2000s tracks — “Because of You,” his introductory single “So Sick,” and “Sexy Love” — before delving into his songwriting career with renditions of three more singles he penned: Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” (led by his backup singers), Mario’s “Let Me Love You,” and Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.”

“I’ve written a couple songs since I’ve been doing this thang, some of them you may know,” Ne-Yo said before the covers portion of the Tiny Desk set. “Matter of fact, I’m gonna jump into some of the ones that I’ve written, that you may or may not know.”

After spending his set reminiscing about his past triumphs, Ne-Yo announced to the NPR Desk that he would debut a new song titled “Two Million Secrets.”

“This next song I’m gonna do for y’all is a new song. This song took a little bit of growth on my part to write, even more to sing. This song is basically about owning your shit, that’s the only way I can put it. Nobody is above mistakes, nobody is above redemption. You do better and you keep pushing.”

Ne-Yo — who most recently won Season 10 of The Masked Singer — then closed out his Tiny Desk gig with one last platinum single, “Miss Independent.”