No, the Irish boyband haven’t created stool-perching replicants of themselves (not yet, anyway). Instead, they’re releasing a single in Mandarin using Kugou AIK, apparently the world’s first AI singing technology.
They didn’t actually sing on the track – a cover of Love + Courage, a 2016 hit for the Chinese singer Jason Whang – but Kugou created a ‘version’ of their voices in Mandarin and the band “personally oversaw the entire creative process over a number of months and were fully involved in the final version.”
As you’d expect, there are a lot of them. In 2021 the band held a ‘concert’ through the Chinese social media platform WeChat which was seen by 27.9 million viewers. One clip of that performance – a version of The Ordinary Road by Chinese singer Pu Shu – was viewed over 72 million times in just three days.
Tencent Music Entertainment are the organisation that have released the single and are driving the Westlife campaign in China. In a statement they said: “Since the release of their album Wild Dreams in 2021, Westlife have continued to deepen their connection with China and Tencent Music Entertainment.
“This ongoing mutual dedication is why we have chosen Westlife as the first international artist to collaborate with to release AI music. We hope to use AI technology to bring Westlife ‘a bit closer’ to their fans in China. This aligns perfectly with Tencent Music Entertainment’s corporate mission of ‘creating endless possibilities with music and technology’.”
Leave a Reply