Noche Buena y Navidad: Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin Around the Christmas Tree’ gets an AI remix

Are voice deepfakes the future of the music industry? Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” got the artificial intelligence (AI) treatment recently, with the release of “Noche Buena y Navidad,” a Spanish version of the song.

The use of artificial intelligence has been raising concerns among professionals in the music industry, but it also opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Indeed, with this technology, replicating famous voices has never been so easy.

[Hero and Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Brenda Lee©]

Noche Buena y Navidad: Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin Around the Christmas Tree’ gets an AI remix

The classic American Christmas pop tune, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is celebrating its 66th anniversary this year. As the festive season approaches, this song, sung by Brenda Lee, gets played in just about every store, from the smallest to the biggest chains. It’s also been covered many times over the years, including by Cindy Lauper in 1988, Kacey Musgraves in 2019, and Justin Bieber in 2020. But, until now, no artist had ventured to sing the song in any language other than English. However, this year, thanks to AI, there’s a new version out on airwaves.

Universal Music Group, holder of the rights to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, released a Spanish-language version of this Christmas classic on October 25. Entitled “Noche Buena y Navidad,” the song is performed by Brenda Lee. But, contrary to what you might think, the septuagenarian didn’t go into the studio to record this adaptation of her hit song. Her voice was simply cloned using MicDrop, an artificial intelligence tool developed by the start-up SoundLabs.

This voice clone was created from several hours of Brenda Lee’s recordings. At the same time, Chilean singer Leyla Hoyle was invited to record her own Spanish-language version of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” This sound recording served as the basis for “Noche Buena y Navidad” and enabled MicDrop to create a digital double of Brenda Lee that sounds right in the Spanish language.

Are voice deepfakes a good thing?

The end result is even more surprising given that Brenda Lee was just13 years old when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958. The artificial intelligence was able to recreate her voice at the time, which was not without its difficulties. “Training a model based on the 13-year-old Brenda Lee … was both a rewarding challenge and a creative breakthrough,” said SoundLabs founder BT in a statement.

The release of “Noche Buena y Navidad” marks a turning point for Universal Music Group. The track is the culmination of an agreement the group signed with SoundLabs in June to enable the major’s artists to harness the creative potential of artificial intelligence. But the growing use of AI in music creation remains controversial, shadowed by issues of mistrust. The music giants are particularly concerned about the proliferation of musical deepfakes online, without the authorization or remuneration of rights holders.

In April 2023, a fake song by Drake and The Weeknd, generated by artificial intelligence, was a runaway success on TikTok. Universal Music Group, the record label of both artists, eventually had the duet removed from music streaming platforms for copyright infringement, but it continues to be shared by many internet users on various platforms and social networks.

This story is published via AFP Relaxnews.