Watch a Japanese holographic pop star's perplexing Letterman performance


Late-night musical guest spots: Not just for humans anymore!
The musical guest on last night's Late Show with David Letterman was Hatsune Miku, a Japanese CGI anime character and "virtual idol" who performed as a hologram. Despite being the personification of a "vocaloid," or a singing-voice synthesizer, she's already opened for Lady Gaga and played her songs "live" in arenas around Japan. Still, the performance was likely a bit perplexing for American audiences — Dave appeared to be grinning through embarrassed confusion while thanking the computer and the band at the end. At the very least, the Late Show's bookers should be applauded for having an open mind. --Samantha Rollins
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
-
Groypers: the alt-right group pulled into the foreground
The Explainer The network is led by alt-right activist Nick Fuentes
-
10 concert tours to see this upcoming fall
The Week Recommends Concert tour season isn't over. Check out these headliners.
-
How to put student loan payments on pause
The Explainer If you are starting to worry about missing payments, deferment and forbearance can help
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust ruling
Speed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check law
Speed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestone
Speed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two years
Speed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on X
Speed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'
Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellites
Speed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodes
Speed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff