Japanese pop star Hatsune Miku, preparing to perform in front of the crowd brisbane Monday Night – But there’s a big problem.
The popular singer, who has performed to crowds around the world including the Coachella music festival and a 17-city tour across North America, and who is now kicking off the Australian and New Zealand leg of her tour, is no longer in reality.
The virtual Vocaloid is the singer’s mascot and was created using vocal samples with voice synthesizer software developed by Krypton Future Media in the early 2000s.
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Despite her lack of presence in the real world, she has still managed to collaborate with singer Pharrell Williams, open for Lady Gaga’s world tour, and even appear on the David Letterman show.
The voice synthesizer software used to create Miku was based on Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita and was sold to the public as a way to “force anyone to make their computer sing by entering lyrics and melodies”, which was described as Later sung by Miku.
Their “live” performance is of songs selected from songs created using the software.
Virtual Pop Star’s website said, “When a large number of users created music using the software and posted their works on the Internet, Hatsune Miku rapidly developed into a cultural phenomenon.”
“Since then, Hatsune Miku has gained a lot of attention as a character, being involved in many areas such as merchandising and live performances as a virtual singer – her popularity has now spread around the world.”
Miku is accompanied by four human musicians and appears as a hologram on a transparent screen centre-stage Guardian Writing that Miku “represents a potential future for music creation and fans, and internet culture is blurring the lines between these two”.
Miku, designed to resemble the 16-year-old anime character, has had a pop-cultural influence with Pokémon including video games, song and art collaborations, and even Miku-themed Magic: The Gathering cards. Has reached.
Miku’s Australian tour begins tonight at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, before moving to Sydney, Melbourne and concluding RAC Arena in Perth on 26 November.
virtual future
Miku is not the first or last pop star to have a hit despite having no real-world presence.
In 1969, The Archies, the fictional American rock band from the cartoon TV series The Archie Show, topped the charts with their song Sugar, Sugar.
The British band Gorillaz, formed in 1998 by British musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, consists of four fictional band members and burst onto the music scene as a highly successful virtual band through elaborate video clips and chart-topping albums.
In both of those instances, however, actual musicians provided the voices and music.
A hologram of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur performed for a stunned audience along with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre during a live set at Coachella in 2012.
Swedish band ABBA also famously held a virtual concertThe group are depicted as they appeared in the 70s in a purpose-built stadium in London, as well as performing in front of a sold-out crowd at Eurovision in 2024.
But the new wave of virtual stars has been created completely artificially and is attracting a huge fan base.
In 2016, Kizuna AI became one of the most successful virtual YouTubers of all time with over 4 million subscribers.
The future of virtual celebrity doesn’t seem to be slowing down, as virtual influencers are emerging online, like Mikaela Sousa, also known as LilMikaela. Whose Instagram bio reads, “21 year old robot living in LA”.
Lilmikaela has gained 2.5 million followers on her Instagram account and has been featured in streetwear as well as product advertisements for luxury brands such as Calvin Klein and Prada.
