“This sounds wrong,” Instagram user @felosirepsik commented on the show’s announcement on a social media post by USS Feed, gaining hundreds of likes.

“Let him rest,” another user commented.

“He is done with worldly affairs. Let his body of work move forward but not by showing his figure in a hologram,” Instagram user @sixthof0ctober added on the same post.

Others, however, eagerly look forward to enjoying a live stage featuring Glenn’s iconic songs, which, for many Indonesians, defined the 90s and 2000s, with hits like “Kasih Putih” and “Januari” that are still played on radios.

“Me and my friends truly like his songs beyond just him as a singer, so I think it would still look cool,” 24-year-old fan Agnes Liana told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Another fan, 51-year-old Septi Napitupulu, said the show had nothing to do with bringing Glenn “back from the dead.”

“He is already resting in peace,” she told the Post separately. “If they want to showcase his music again for other people to remember him, it’s not a problem to use the newest technology.”

The late R&B singer-songwriter will be brought back onstage in an artificial intelligence (AI)-led hologram in what organizers claim is a first in the country.

Back to 'live': The late R&B singer Glenn Fredly is shown in a video trailer for his upcoming hologram concert 'Glenn Fredly: 25 Years of Music' on June 24, 2023, in Ancol, Jakarta. (Premier Live Productions/-)

Technology-driven

The concert, titled Glenn Fredly: 25 Years of Music, will be held on June 24 at Beach City International Stadium, Ancol, North Jakarta.

Premier Live Productions and Bumi Entertainment, the latter founded by Glenn, worked together to organize the concert to celebrate Glenn’s career, which spanned from 1995 to 2020, the year he passed away.

“We all missed Glenn Fredly. Seeing and listening to his work live on stage will be a great moment to shed those longings,” the concert’s initiator and Premier Live Productions COO Ryan Novianto told Antara in March.

Ryan said this concert was a plan he and the late singer had discussed shortly before his death at the age of 44 in April 2020 due to meningitis.

“Even though he’s not around anymore, with the technological sophistication that we have [...], it is time to translate that discussion into a grand celebration,” he added.

This marks the first inclusion of AI to support a full-fledged hologram concert live in Indonesia.

Several previous iterations had only involved the late singers on an LED screen, like pop legend Chrisye at the 2012 Kidung Abadi Concert, or edited in a TV taping with extended reality technology, like campursari maestro Didi Kempot at the Smartfren WOW Virtual Concert in 2020.

“When Didi Kempot passed away just two months before his 2020 concert at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, the plan was for the show to go on with a hologram in his place. But the concert got canceled due to the pandemic, and so far the only appearance to date of “holo Kempot” has been a virtual performance on TV in which it ‘sang’ with Tiara Andini,” music writer Hasief Ardiasyah told the Post.

“As far as I know, this Glenn Fredly tribute concert will be the first full show in Indonesia with a hologram front and center,” he said.

The AI-supported hologram was developed by local production house Krietstudio. Famed posthumous shows of foreign artists like Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson have previously used the same methods for their holograms.

“Initially, the concert promoter asked if we could make a 3D hologram. But developing a human-like 3D character in Indonesia costs a lot,” Tito Qemal, a creative director at Krietstudio, said on Friday.

Tito said the AI they were utilizing for Glenn’s hologram was a machine-learning AI that generated deepfake, a digitally-altered video of someone else’s face on a person.

“So, we needed a talent with a matching posture and facial structures of the late Glenn Fredly,” he explained. They then combined the machine-learning AI with computer-generated imagery (CGI) to enhance the deepfake and “strengthen the realism.”

The development process took months, starting pre-production in February all the way to the talent’s shooting in May.

“First, the talent had to train to be Glenn because even with AI and CGI we can’t totally change one’s gesture or expression. It all has to come from the talent himself,” Tito said.

The promoters initially asked Krietstudio to generate Glenn’s voice with AI as well, something that has gained attention lately after a viral AI cover of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo singing Soegi Bornean’s hit pop song “Asmalibrasi”.

But Tito admitted there was not enough time to do so.

The late R&B singer Glenn Fredly's dark cutout looms over the other musicians in this poster for Glenn Fredly: 25 Years of Music, which will be held on June 24, 2023. (Premier Live Productions/-)

Prolonging legacy

Glenn’s hologram, which will stand tall on a holographic net onstage, will also be recorded to talk and interact with other musicians slated to perform alongside him, from rock legend Iwan Fals to songstress Rossa.

Tito added that Glenn’s management and family have been very supportive of the event.

“We’ve seen the hologram and were taken aback because it looked just like him,” Mozes Latuihamallo, Glenn’s younger brother, told the Post. “It’s a mixed feeling, but we’re happy to see him return onstage to be with everyone.”

Risty Nurraisa, one of Chrisye’s daughters, was also initially concerned about how the fans would react to her late father’s screen-based hologram in the 2012 concert.

“For me, when he’s onstage, my dad belonged to the people,” Risty told the Post.

Thankfully, the concert had a great reception. Risty also shared that Chrisye’s reverberating voice soothed her more than the hologram.

“My dad’s concert felt lively, and it’s all thanks to [composer] Erwin Gutawa and [director] Jay Subiyakto,” Risty added.

But Hasief, an avid concertgoer, believes that a hologram would not be enough to capture Glenn’s full essence.

“As advanced as the technology may be, it’s never going to replace the real thing. Especially not a performer like Glenn Fredly, for whom jamming and spontaneity were big parts of his live shows,” he assessed.

“Having said that, I hope all goes well for everyone involved and that they honor his legacy properly.”