Midnatt by HYBE to debut with ‘Masquerade’ in six languages

HYBE’s new artist Midnatt will debut next Monday with its digital single “Masquerade,” in six different languages.

“Masquerade” will be released in Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and English. A teaser video was released Sunday midnight.

Details about Midnatt have been kept secret aside from the fact that it is the artificial intelligence “Project L” that HYBE founder Bang Si-hyuk mentioned last month in an interview with Billboard Magazine.

In the interview, Bang said that HYBE had started a collaboration with Superton, a local start-up specializing in using AI to replicate human voices, for Project L and will reveal the results in May.

“Superton’s technology can not only mimic voices, but it can also perfectly simulate certain accents and characteristics, such as age,” he said in the interview. “If you apply a certain person’s accent to a recorded voice, you will hear a completely different voice.”

Should it be an AI-generated artist, Midnatt will follow behind the other virtual stars that have already debuted in Korea, including Rozy and Sua.

SM Entertainment also presented virtual singer Naevis through girl group aespa’s song “Welcome to MY World” earlier this month.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]