Lauv

Ari Staprans Leff (born 1994 in San Francisco), known as Lauv, wrote and produced his way to streaming ubiquity with “I Like Me Better” and collaborations with BTS and Troye Sivan — a self-made pop auteur who releases through his own imprint rather than a major label.

Singing in a language he doesn’t speak

In November 2023 Lauv became the first major Western artist to use voice-AI startup Hooky, founded by Grammy-winning producer DJ Swivel, to release a song in another language. Former K-pop idol Kevin Woo translated and recorded “Love U Like That” in Korean; Hooky’s model then converted Woo’s performance into Lauv’s voice, producing a Korean version genuinely sung — synthetically — by Lauv. He called it a gift to fans in Seoul, the site of his biggest headline show.

Lauv told Billboard his interest was sparked by the viral fake Drake track “Heart on My Sleeve,” and that artists should engage rather than retreat — embracing what is possible “in a way that’s beneficial and able to get artists paid.” He said he would even consider letting others use his voice model, so long as attribution clearly separated his originals from AI derivatives.

The release drew attention as a template for consensual voice AI: artist-licensed, collaborator-credited, and revenue-generating — the mirror image of the unauthorized clones flooding streaming platforms, and an early answer to how localization might work when any singer can sing in any language.