The new Spanish language adaptation of Lee’s holiday hit ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ was created with the singer’s full authorization via ‘responsibly sourced’ AI.
Fantoons Animation Studios has created an animated music video for Brenda Lee’s “Noche Buena y Navidad,” the Spanish language adaptation of her iconic holiday hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” The studio is co-founded by Venezuelan-born, U.S.-based writer and director David Calcano and producer Linda Otero.
In the video, viewers are taken on a Christmas Eve bike ride that begins below the equator, traveling through Latin American towns in Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador, before heading Mexico and Miami in the United States. Many of the Christmas Eve foods and specialties from various regions are highlighted, including handmade tamales, pan de jamón, asado and Ponche Navideño. Brenda Lee ends the scene by performing “Noche Buena y Navidad” on stage in Los Angeles.
“Noche Buena y Navidad” was refreshed under the production of Auero Baqueiro. The song keeps the original music and background vocals while replacing Lee’s original lead vocals with translated Spanish vocals created using an AI vocal model derived from Lee’s voice.
The track’s new vocal was created with SoundLabs AI’s MicDrop, an AI audio plug-in which transforms vocals into another voice or instrument. In partnership with UMG, SoundLabs is creating official ultra-high fidelity vocal models for artists, using their own voice data for training while giving them full artistic approval and control of the output.
Check out the video now:
“Noche Buena y Navidad” is the first released collaboration with a UMG artist and marks the first time that a music company has used ethically trained AI to release a new language version of a classic song.
“I am so blown away by this new Spanish version of ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,’ which was created with the help of AI,” said Lee. “Throughout my career, I performed and recorded many songs in different languages, but I never recorded ‘Rockin’’ in Spanish, which I would have loved to do. To have this out now is pretty incredible and I’m happy to introduce the song to fans in a new way.”
Calcano shared with AWN, “It’s always an amazing day when we get the opportunity to pitch ideas for a Christmas song we love. There’s a deep and incredible connection to the holidays for all of us. But let’s be honest—joy doesn’t come without its challenges, right? We had just four weeks to put everything together, from concept to the final music video! Anyone in the animation world knows what a whirlwind that entails. We needed something truly beautiful to match this classic song. I won’t lie—it was daunting. But we pulled it off together... because when it comes to animation, togetherness is the only way to go. I’m so lucky to have the incredible support of the talented team at Fantoons Animation Studios! Key hand-drawn scenes were brought to life by Finn Nowikow and Juan 'Maracucho' Riera, who helmed character animation. Reinaldo Mendoza blessed us with his compositing expertise and additional After Effects animation, with invaluable assistance from our 'Mendocino' Jorge Mattus.”
“On the art direction side, we aimed for something that felt authentically Latinx. Larissa Rivero, Alberto Belandria and Jorge Mansilla worked on backgrounds and prop design, while the incredibly talented Lindsay Lee provided colors and additional backgrounds,” he added. “Lindsay’s background work on the sax solo section—an homage to 1950s and 1960s animation montages—was simply breathtaking. A special shoutout to Marielina Obando, who did an amazing job assisting me with art direction and handling the production duties, alongside Linda Otero. Their contributions were essential to bringing this vision to life.”
Source: Fantoons Animation Studios
Journalist, antique shop owner, aspiring gemologist—L'Wren brings a diverse perspective to animation, where every frame reflects her varied passions.
