What is Hatsune Miku?

Hatsune Miku is a Japanese music sensation, a 16 year-old blue-haired girl with a unique voice and prodigious energy.

What makes her special is that she is not a human singer, but a virtual persona who uses a computer-generated voice and 3D graphics to perform on stage. With a repertoire entirely provided by individual creators, she is the first truly crowd-created virtual talent. But being virtual doesn't stop her from filling up concert halls, or teaming up with major artists like Lady Gaga and Pharrell Williams!

Internationally popular, with over 2.5 million followers on Facebook, the increasing demand for concerts overseas paved the way to Miku Expo, a world tour that has so far taken her from Indonesia to Los Angeles, New York and Shanghai, with a memorable TV stop at the David Letterman show.

Next spring she's back for a series of live concerts in her native country of Japan, before heading to North America for even more dates, to once again meet thousands of fans eager to see her "in person"!

Illustration by KEI