Brenda Lee, who’s given the green light to an AI-created Spanish-language version of her 1958 holiday classic ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.’ Photo Credit: UMG
Nearly seven decades after it was recorded by Brenda Lee, perennial holiday hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has received a Spanish-language re-release courtesy of artificial intelligence.
Universal Music Group (UMG) today announced the AI track, which is already live on streaming services. Now 79 years old, Lee first recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958, and the Christmas-playlist staple has, of course, remained commercially prominent since then.
With the apparent support of the appropriate artist, continued AI advancements, and strong streaming growth across several Spanish-speaking markets in Latin America, why not try to build on that prominence with a new version? Enter “Noche Buena y Navidad,” which UMG says resulted from “responsibly-trained AI technology.”
Featuring the existing instrumentals and background vocals, the updated song was produced by Auero Baqueiro, who also handled the preliminary step of adapting the relevant lyrics into Spanish, per Universal Music.
From there, Chile-born Leyla Hoyle recorded these lyrics in Spanish, working to mimic “Lee’s unique vocal patterns – matching pitch, tone breaths and phrasings of the original recording,” per the major label.
Next, the MicDrop creator SoundLabs (with which UMG partnered over the summer), drawing from “hours of isolated vocal stems from Lee’s UMG archives,” made “a unique bespoke AI vocal model,” UMG relayed of the involved process.
Said model was then applied to Hoyle’s recording to make it seem as though a young Lee had recorded the track in Spanish back when, for instance, color TV was still relatively new. Predictably, the final step was replacing the initial vocals with their AI-powered Spanish-language counterparts.
In a statement, the four-time Grammy nominee Lee communicated: “I am so blown away by this new Spanish version of ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,’ which was created with the help of AI.
“Throughout my career, I performed and recorded many songs in different languages, but I never recorded ‘Rockin’’ in Spanish, which I would have loved to do. To have this out now is pretty incredible and I’m happy to introduce the song to fans in a new way,” concluded the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.
Looking ahead to the new year, while it might go without saying, all manner of additional (authorized) AI soundalike projects are presumably on the way. (Warner Music and Randy Travis in May used artificial intelligence to release the artist’s “first new music in more than a decade,” and closer to the present, Timbaland utilized Suno to help make a fresh single.)
Beyond those and other potential positives, the unprecedented technology, in many ways a runaway train more than anything else, appears poised to keep on fueling a variety of issues owing to its training specifics, the prevalence of unauthorized soundalike tracks, the sheer volume of audio it’s pumping out, and a whole lot else.
Bearing the obstacles in mind, Universal Music took the opportunity to conclude the “Noche Buena y Navidad” announcement message by reiterating its support for the NO FAKES Act.