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Virtual Pop Singer Hatsune Miku Performs on David Letterman – Update

The most popular hologram this side of Tupac makes her late night U.S. TV debut.

Update: We have added video of her performance on the show — David interacting with her after the song is as weird as you would expect.

Original Story: The first two-thirds of The Late Show with David Letterman’s lineup tonight is late night standard fare. CNN and CBS journalist/personality Anderson Cooper leads off, followed by Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez. But the musical guest is going to be quite the system shock.

Hatsune Miku is performing on Letterman tonight, too, as the Japanese virtual pop star is set to perform in front of her largest U.S. audience yet. The performance comes a day before Universal Positivity opens, a New York City art expo dedicated to the V-Pop star.

So where does Hatsune Miku come from? For the uninitiated (myself included), Hatsune is a Vocaloid — a computer apparition that sings by processing melody and lyrics. She was created by the Sapporo-based Crypton Future Media, and Hatsune’s voice is sampled from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita. The samples have been processed through several software programs, including Yamaha Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3.

Hatsune Miku has her own manga series, Hatsune Miku: Unofficial Hatsune Mix, and has made a number of appearances in other manga, and anime. Hatsune also has a video game series published by Sega, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA. The latest in this series, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd, will be released next month in the U.S. for the PlayStation 3, and PS Vita.

Along with appearing in various media, Hatsune also performs live shows, which is what tonight’s Letterman appearance will likely be. A holographic projection image of Hatsune will be paired with her Vocaloid track, and there’s no doubt that everyone in the Letterman audience is going to be weirded the heck out.

Source: CBS, Letterman (Twitter)

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