"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was released in 1958 by Brenda Lee, and for decades been a staple on Americans' holiday playlists. Now, there is a new version of the hit song available for Spanish speakers.
“Noche Buena y Navidad” was released last week by MCA Nashville/UMe with the help of DoundLab's AI MicDrop, which is described as a "plug-in which allows a user to transform their voice into another voice or instrument." Producers say SoundLabs is "creating official ultra-high fidelity vocal models for artists, using their own voice data for training while giving them full artistic approval and control of the output."
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Brenda Lee, who was age 13 when she recorded the hit that has continued to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts years later, was thrilled with the final product.
“I am so blown away by this new Spanish version of ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,’ which was created with the help of AI,” says Brenda Lee. “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.”
Latin Grammy Award-winning producer Auero Baqueiro helped give the song the sound of Lee's hit while using Spanish lyrics. He had to ensure the lyrics, phonetics and rhyming all feels natural to Spanish speakers.
Producers then enlisted vocalist Leyla Hoyle to provide backing vocals.
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“The minute you hear Brenda Lee’s iconic voice on ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ you know it’s the official start of Christmas,” says UMG Nashville CEO, Cindy Mabe. “The global hit has touched people all over the world and kept this young 13-year-old spirit of Christmas captured in a time capsule. We are all so excited for this new Spanish version created with the help of AI from that legendary voice and approved by Brenda Lee herself to help celebrate this enduring, timeless classic.”
UMG says that it used AI in a responsible manner and says it supports legislation to protect artists from voice and image clones. Lee was among a group of artists who signed a letter backing the No Fakes Act.
