Amy Winehouse’s Hologram Set To Go On Tour Next Year
Amy Winehouse is going on tour as a hologram, six years after her death. The Telegraph reports that her father announced the tour at the Amy Winehouse Foundation’s annual gala.
Amy’s father, Mitch Winehouse, also unveiled the hologram of his late daughter at the event.
“As a family, we felt ready to bring Amy’s incredible talent back to the spotlight, give her fans a chance to experience her music again and for new generations to continue to discover her,” he said. “It’s time to remind everyone that Amy was one of the great musicians and performers.”
According to The Telegraph, the hologram will be “performing” in various countries next year and will be accompanied by background singers and a band. All proceeds from the gigs will go towards the foundation which uses donations to support substance abuse programs.
On social media, the reaction to the news has been mixed. Some people have expressed that they don’t think that this is something that the singer would have signed off on.
“There is no way she would have entertained this idea for a second, how can you go ahead knowing that?” Twitter user “@davidnnh” wrote.
Another tweet pointed out that Winehouse, struggled with the pressures of being in the music industry when she was alive, so it seems cruel to have her persona continue to do so, now that she’s dead.
“There is something extremely distasteful about this — an artist who was clearly struggling while under the pressure of touring, to continue touring in hologram form after she died at the ripe old age of 27?” wrote Rhian Jones, contributing editor at Music Biz World.
Amy Winehouse hologram to start touring in 2019 https://t.co/oecKizFvs6 pic.twitter.com/NI6wy1aSE4
— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) October 13, 2018
The Amy Winehouse hologram was created by Base Hologram, a company that has done holograms of deceased musical performers before. According to The Telegraph, they have created virtual doubles of opera singer Maria Callas and singer/songwriter Roy Orbison.
But as Mashable notes, these holograms aren’t really based on completely new technology. The technique they use is called “Pepper’s Ghost” and it has been around for centuries. To create an illusion using the technique, you will need angled mirrors which will allow you to project an image so that it seems like it’s really there. For Coachella 2012, an image Tupac was projected onto foil and angled mirrors made it look like he was on stage performing alongside Snoop Dogg.
The Amy Winehouse hologram is set to do its first gig near the end of next year.
