Edinburgh's Nina Nesbitt does an Abba and becomes an avatar for virtual gig

ABBA have done it and now Edinburgh singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt too has worked out that becoming an avatar is the name of the game in 2021.

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The pop star, who was brought up in Livingston and Balerno but now lives in London, has found herself immortalised digitally for her 'appearance' at The Metaverse Festival, which begins tomorrow, October 21.

The world’s first ever multi-day music festival to be held in the metaverse is hosted by Decentraland, the blockchain-based virtual world and if that means little to you, the metaverse is a virtual world accessed through the Internet that exists in parallel to our physical world.

Nina NesbittNina Nesbitt
Nina Nesbitt
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The 27-year-old singer/songwriter best known for her Top 40 hit, Stay Out, shared her experience of wearing a motion capture suit and being digitised, the first part of being transformed into an avatar, with her fans and followers on Instagram.

In an interview with the website Coindesk, she explained, “I’m not able to tour internationally at the moment, and it made me think of other ways I can perform and connect with my fan base. I thought this was a really interesting way and something that’s quite new and has not been done that much before in the pop world so I wanted to give it a try.

“It was really strange recording it, to try to have the energy of being on stage and doing all the movement in the body because you have to exaggerate everything. But I have always wanted to be turned into a real-life Sim, so this has been a really cool experience.”

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Nina Nesbitt in her motion capture suit for the Metaverse FestivalNina Nesbitt in her motion capture suit for the Metaverse Festival
Nina Nesbitt in her motion capture suit for the Metaverse Festival

The Metaverse Festival is based around the theme of evolution and over four days its visual aesthetic will transform from Water, on its opening day, to Earth, Space, and finally Metaverse, on its final day.

Nesbitt will play the Evolution Stage, the festival’s main stage, at 1am this Friday, October 22, and, just as attendees are represented by an avatar, so too are the artists. Other bands appearing include Deadmau5, Paris Hilton and 3LUA.

The singer's custom-designed avatar, which will be performing under the sea, will be wearing digital sneakers designed by Fewocious, the 18-year-old rising star of the digital art world. His recent work ‘Nice to meet you, I’m Mr. Misunderstood’ was sold by Sotheby’s at auction for a staggering £2.1 million.

Expect Nesbitt to perform tracks from her 2019 album, The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change, which elevated her to a new status as one one of Spotify’s Top 500 artists in the world, with more than half a billion streams worldwide.

The avatar Nina NesbittThe avatar Nina Nesbitt
The avatar Nina Nesbitt

Her growing global reputation was further emphasised when she was named by Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for the Woman of the Decade Award at Billboard’s Women in Music event.

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Over the past 10 months, Nesbitt’s releases have included Summer Fling, which reached No 1 on TikTok UK’s Hot 50, and her current single Life’s A Bitch, a '1980s inspired, post-2020, driving-your-car-through-a tunnel-at-night' song.

The Metaverse Festival runs from October 21-14, full details can be found at https://themetaversefestival.io/

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