Brenda Lee’s iconic holiday hit, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” first recorded 66 years ago, has been released today in Spanish for the first time, thanks to an innovative use of responsibly-trained AI technology.
Last holiday season, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” was the No. 1 song in the U.S. for three weeks, topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart more than half a century after it was recorded and released in 1958, by the then 13-year-old star.
“Noche Buena y Navidad” was refreshed under the production of acclaimed four-time Latin GRAMMY Award-winning producer, Auero Baqueiro, keeping the original music and background vocals while replacing Lee’s original lead vocals with a newly translated Spanish language vocal, created using a new AI vocal model, derived from her voice that has been fully approved by Lee.
The result is a new version of the familiar and cherished holiday classic that sounds as if 13-year-old Brenda Lee was in the booth, singing it for the first time.
The track’s new vocal was created with the help of SoundLabs AI’s MicDrop, a cutting-edge AI audio plug-in which allows a user to transform their voice into another voice or instrument. In partnership with UMG, 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.
Earlier this year, Universal Music Group (UMG) entered into a groundbreaking strategic partnership with SoundLabs, an innovative new AI technology company founded by GRAMMY-nominated producer, composer, software developer, and electronic artist BT.
“Noche Buena y Navidad” is the first collaboration with a UMG artist to be released and marks the first time that a music company has used ethically trained AI to release a new language version of a classic song, created responsibly with the artist’s involvement and authorization.
“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.”
“We are thrilled to work with Brenda Lee to making ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ the first classic song translated responsibly into another language with the power of AI, says UMe President & CEO, Bruce Resnikoff. “We are also very excited about the possibilities of this emerging technology and look forward to harnessing its capabilities to introduce new material created by and approved by our artists.”
“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 Chair & CEO, Cindy Mabe. “The global hits 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.”
This past summer, UMe, the global catalog division of UMG, proposed the idea of creating “Noche Buena y Navidad” to Lee for release for the holidays. As the legendary Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer enjoyed singing her songs in different languages throughout her illustrious seven-decade career, including French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, Lee provisionally approved the request. She approved its release upon hearing it and marveling at how authentic it sounds.
The process was much more involved than one might realize and featured a team of accomplished music professionals from across the spectrum to bring the idea to life. Four-time Latin GRAMMY-winning producer and songwriter, Auero Baqueiro, was enlisted to help produce “Noche Buena y Navidad.” His first step was to adapt the lyrics from English to Spanish, making sure to capture the essence of the original but also ensuring that the lyrics, phonetics and rhyming structure felt natural to the Spanish language. Leyla Hoyle, a Chilean born, LA-based Latin vocalist was then brought in to sing the vocals in Spanish while mimicking Lee’s unique vocal patterns – matching pitch, tone breaths and phrasings of the original recording.
Next, Baqueiro delivered the Spanish vocal stem to SoundLabs, who was provided hours of isolated vocal stems from Lee’s UMG archives to create a unique bespoke AI vocal model based on her voice, including the original version of “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” which was recorded when she was 13 years old. Hoyle’s Spanish vocal was then put through the “Brenda Lee” vocal AI model (built leveraging the MicDrop technology), which modified the Spanish vocal to sound like Lee’s voice. Lastly, Baqueiro mixed the AI-created Spanish vocal back into the original music bed.
The result is the new Spanish version “Noche Buena y Navidad,” which harnesses the creative capabilities of ethical AI and demonstrates how AI can be used to expand the horizons of artistry while being respectful of artists and used with their full authorization.
“This project was a tremendously exciting showcase for MicDrop, our real-time voice-to-voice plugin,” says SoundLabs founder, BT. “Training a model based on the 13-year-old Brenda Lee, using original masters, was both a rewarding challenge and a creative breakthrough. We’re thrilled with how this technology breathes new life into a beloved Christmas classic, blending innovation with tradition in a truly human way.”
SoundLabs’ goals is to place powerful new compositional tools at artists’ fingertips, while supporting proper management of their intellectual property. SoundLabs was founded with a foundational respect for intellectual property rights and is focused on helping artists retain creative control over their data and models.
UMG supports bipartisan legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress to protect individuals’ voice and visual likeness from unauthorized computer-generated recreations, using generative AI and other technologies, like deepfakes and voice/image clones. The bill, known as the “NO FAKES Act” (S. 4875 in the Senate and H.R. 9551 in the U.S. House of Representatives) has overwhelming support from a broad swath across the creative community. Recently, Brenda Lee joined hundreds of artists, songwriters, and other creators supporting the legislation in an open letter published by the Human Artistry Campaign, the global organization backing Responsible AI. More information is available at www.humanartistrycampaign.com/nofakesact
Brenda Lee signed with the legendary Decca Records label before her 12th birthday and went on to record such landmark hits as “Sweet Nothin’s,” “All Alone Am I,” “Break It To Me Gently” and “I’m Sorry.” Though she had success in multiple genres including rockabilly, pop and rock, Lee found her home in country music. Lee’s best-loved hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” celebrated its 65th anniversary last year and continues to top the charts year after year. Not only has Lee sold more than 100 million albums globally, throughout her career she shared stages and earned the respect of the world’s most revered performers. The Beatles opened for her and the lads from Liverpool became good friends with the Southern belle from Atlanta, and Elvis Presley and Lee made their Grand Ole Opry debut on the same night. Lee had nine consecutive top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from 1960 to 1962 and set a record for a female solo artist that was unequaled until over two decades later. Lee churned out country hits such as “Sunday Sunrise” and “Big Four Poster Bed” and continued to have country hits into the 80s, including “I Love Her So,” a duet with George Jones. Lee was the first woman inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Hall of Fames and she is a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Her hit song “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” was certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA and reached 1 billion streams on Spotify. In November 2023, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time ever, 65 years after the song’s debut, and was at the top spot for three weeks. By hitting the No.1 spot, Lee broke several records, many of which were held by Mariah Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” whom Lee beat out for the top. Lee claims just the third holiday No. 1 ever on the Hot 100. “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is also Lee’s third No. 1. She now holds the record for the longest gap between an artist’s first and most recent week at No.1 on the Hot 100, as her first No.1 was her single “I’m Sorry” in 1960. Lee and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” now also hold the record for the longest climb to the top of the Hot 100, as the Johnny Marks-written hit was released 65 years ago, when Lee was just 13 years old. Now, at 79-years-old, Lee is also the oldest woman to top the Hot 100, surpassing previous record-holders Cher (“Believe,” age 52) and Carey (“All I Want for Christmas is You,” age 53).
