Virtual Japanese pop sensation, Hatsune Miku is set to take the US and Canada by storm during a six-city tour come Spring 2016. Hatsune Miku is the first of the Character Vocal Series developed by Japan-based music technology company Crypton Future Media, INC. Hatsune Miku uses the Vocaloid singing synthesizer technology of Yamaha Corporation and mixes voice samples from Japanese actress Saki Fujita.
The futuristic appeal of Hatsune Miku gained popular approval in the US when she opened for Lady Gaga's 'Artrave' in 2014 and was seen in a live CGI performance in 'The Late Show With David Letterman'.
Hatsune Miku, whose name is derived from first (hatsu) sound (ne) and future (miku) to denote the promised range by Crypton Future Media's Character Vocal Series, is not meant to depict an AI. She is, instead, "'The Sound From the Future'". Hatsune Miku's website touts her accomplishments to be "over 100,000 released songs, 170,000 uploaded YouTube videos and 1,000,000 created artworks". Her creators at Crypton Future Media have had collaborations with such companies as SEGA, Toyota USA and Google.
Hatsune Miku's profile recounts these details about the J-pop princess:
Age: 16 / Height: 158cm / Weight: 42kg
Favorite Genre: J-Pops, Dance-Pops
Favorite Tempo: 70～150BPM
Best Voice Range: A3-E5
Reactions are mixed over the prospect of watching a full concert by Hatsune Miku, which in effect will really mean watching a projected animation. This brings to mind Michael Jackson's performance as a hologram at the Billboard Music Awards in 2014. Still, the J-pop phenomenon has around 2.5 Million likes on her Facebook account, with 2,471 excited over her coming tour.
So far, Hatsune Mitsu's confirmed stops state-side are the WaMu Theatre in Seattle and The Warfield in San Francisco on April 23, the Microsoft Theater in LA on May 6, The Bomb Factor in Dallas on May 14, the Sony Centre in Toronto on May 20 and capped by the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York on May 28. More dates are expected to be set for the tour.
Besides these live performances, Hatsune Miku can also be heard among the tracks of Ubisoft dance video game Just Dance 2016 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, and Wii U. Hatsune Miku's cover of Finnish folk song Ievan Polkka has, in fact, been described as "unbearably addictive".
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