Who is Hatsune Miku? Virtual singer ‘performing’ at major Vancouver venue this weekend

There's a popular concert coming to town this weekend, but the artist isn't one you would expect.

She’s appeared on stage at Coachella, donned custom outfits designed by Marc Jacobs, and been featured in commercials for Google—but the singer Hatsune Miku remains relatively unknown to many Canadians.

Part of the reason might be that she’s not a real person.

Miku does have a growing following, however, and the virtual anime character will be “performing” a nearly sold-out show this weekend at Thunderbird Arena, a venue at the University of British Columbia campus with a capacity of up to 7,000 people.

The ticket resale prices—ranging from around $130 to upwards of $400 on Ticketmaster—are a sign of just how big a phenomenon the unconventional pop idol has become.

So who is Hatsune Miku, and what draws people to her concerts?

Fan-made music

Aldrich Aryadi, 24, will be among the attendees at Saturday’s show, and said he first started listening to Miku songs as an elementary school student growing up in Indonesia back in 2014.

“Even in Asia, back then Hatsune Miku was not a mainstream phenomenon,” Aryadi said.

“I couldn’t understand the lyrics because it was in Japanese—some songs these days are in English—but I liked the music. I think liking the music transcends language barriers.”

Miku shows feature the animated character being projected onto screens, often clear ones that create a holographic effect for the audience.

But her earliest form dates back to 2007 as one of several “voicebanks” developed for Vocaloid, a piece of voice synthesizer software created by Yamaha.

Like a Yamaha piano, Miku was—and remains now—an instrument that can be used by anyone to compose music.

In fact, producers of massively popular Hatsune Miku fan songs can even get the opportunity to see their creations performed before thousands of enthusiastic fans, often backed by live human musicians.

Aryadi has never composed music using the voicebank, but knows others who have, and he’s looking forward to hearing tracks from North American producers at the show.

“You get to know your local artists, you get to support the growing community,” he said.

Connection and novelty

Fandoms like Miku’s thrive on what’s sometimes called “prosumption,” a portmanteau of production and consumption, giving individuals a creative outlet to express themselves and connect with one another on a deep level.

While Aryadi wasn’t aware at the time, some of the early songs he enjoyed as a child turned out to feature heavy subject matter—dealing with themes of social isolation and even suicide.

“Recently, Hatsune Miku’s music is more oriented towards romance, but pre-2020 it was pretty dark,” he said.

Her following has grown substantially over the years—Miku’s official YouTube page now has 4.3 million subscribers—to a global community that’s been described as both supportive and diverse.

Even those who aren’t musically talented can join in through other mediums, like cosplay, dressing up as various iterations of Miku to attend conventions and shows.

Aryadi knows that not everyone sees the appeal of virtual idols—he said he’s struggled to explain the concept to his own dad—but he encouraged anyone who scoffs at the fandom to keep an open mind.

He’s already talked one friend who is totally unfamiliar with Hatsune Miku into joining him at this weekend’s show.

“I ended up convincing him. He was like, ‘What am I signing up for?’” Aryadi said with a laugh.

“The novelty of the situation is sort of the highlight.”