At the end of this month, a hologram of Whitney Huston will kick off a world tour. Starting in the U.K. then heading to Europe, ‘An Evening With Whitney Huston Tour’ is set to be one of the first world tours to come out of this technology.
Speaking of live musical performances, we had a chat about Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s Super Bowl performance on this episode of It’s Been A Big Day For…
However, it’s not the first time hologram concerts have been done. In fact, they’ve been happening for quite some time now.
In 2012, the late 2Pac hit the Coachella stage with Snopp Dogg. After yelling “what the f**k is up Coachella”, he performed ‘2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted’ in one of the most visually stimulating live performances to date.
While the hologram was visually strange, in that he was quite a few shades brighter than regular humans, the social media response showed there was a market for this concept.
Then came 2014, when an illusion of Michael Jackson performed ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ at the Billboard Music Awards. While this wasn’t technically a hologram (it was actually the Pepper’s illusion effect), it definitely showcased the evolving technology in the world of special effects.
After that, a whole bunch of other hologram performances popped up (like Amy Whinehouse’s and a lot of K-Pop acts) leading us to this Whitney Huston tour.
The tour, being presented by BASE Holograms, has 25 scheduled dates across the U.K and Europe on top of a planned Mexico tour and an American leg (the latter to hit in Autumn 2020). But, it begs the question, are there actually a lot of people that want to go see this?
I can understand from a technology perspective, why people would want to see this one time. I’m curious to see how realistic the hologram will look, but other than that, I don’t think there’s much in it for the long run. It certainly captures my curiosity, but I can’t see much longevity in the concept.
The appeal with concerts is knowing that a musician is in the same room as you, it’s wondering how they’ll interact with the crowd, it’s wondering how the show will differ from other shows past. A hologram concert removes all of this ambiguity. It’s essentially the equivalent of watching a concert at your local cinema.
But, to be fair, this project has recruited acclaimed choreographer Fatima Robinson to put together a live performance that features a live band, live singers and live backup dancers. So, there is an element of spontaneity, even if it’s not to do with Whitney herself. Also, the tracks will be remastered versions of Whitney’s classic hits, so we can for sure expect a modern twist.
I’m certainly contemplating going to the Whitney show, if the tour ends up hitting Australia, but I’m just unsure if there’s going to be demand for a hologram tour in years to come.
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