Liza Minnelli has released new music for the first time in 13 years, and she did so with the help of AI.
Minnelli, 79, celebrated the decision on Facebook Wednesday, January 21. “Hi Kids, I’m happy as a clam, laughing like hell and losing my mind! It’s all goin’ on at the time. Today, my first EDM single since The Pet Shop Boys era, released on @elevenlabsio , a Six Billion Dollar techno behemoth does amazing things,” she wrote.
Minnelli continued: “Matthew McConaughey was an early investor. Smart. What I will not allow this great company to do? Create, clone or copy my voice! On this dance track, ‘Kids Wait Till You Hear This’ which is a tease for my book, we used AI arrangements.”
“Not AI vocals. A few trolls didn’t bother to read the truth, check with me or my partners. The shout outs are all mine! Go listen, enjoy, and shake your pretty buns to the music, as we glide down the runway to send my book into the world and your very own hot hands. And the photograph? Not retro. Au Courant,” Minnelli concluded.
Prior to sharing this song, Minnelli’s most recent release was a 2013 song for the musical drama Smash.
In a press release, Minnelli also said, “I’ve always believed that music is about connection and emotional truth. What interested me here was the idea of using my voice and new tools in service of expression, not instead of it. This project respects the artist’s voice, the artist’s choices, and the artist’s ownership. I grew up watching my parents create wonderful dreams that were owned by other people. ElevenLabs makes it possible for anyone to be a creator and owner. That matters.”
Liza Minnelli is not the only musician using AI-created instrumentals
Minnelli is not the only musician who participated in the foray into AI-generated music. The compilation also features a track from Art Gunfunkel in which the Simon & Garfunkel singer issues a spoken except from his memoir What Is It All But Luminous over a piano backing created by AI.
Per the Guardian, Garfunkel said of the track, “Music has always evolved alongside technology, from microphones to multitrack recording. What impressed me about this experience was the respect for musicianship. The human remains at the center. My voice plus the technology simply opens another door.”
ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 by a former Google employee
ElevenLabs, the company behind the compilation that Minnelli and Garfunkel participated in, was started in 2022 by former Google machine learning engineer Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski, who previously worked for the American-Israeli software company Palantir.
The company’s most successful product to date is Speech Synthesis, AI-assisted text-to-speech software that synthesizes human emotion. Per the European startup news site Sifted, the pair want to be able to transfer text-to-speech and audio-to-audio in any language and voice, all while retaining the emotion with which the words are expressed.
The software could also be used to dub films, to translate material for journalists and authors, and even by content creators.
Related: Amazon Prime Video Launches AI-Generated Video Recaps for Hit Shows
