Narendra Modi has done it. So has Freddy Mercury. Appeared as holograms, that is.

Now a Japanese pop star has taken it to another level altogether. She doesn't even exist in real life. An anime figure, she's only a hologram, not even a real person. Her name? Hatsune Miku.

She's not the only one of her kind in a country that often blurs the distinction between humans and artificial beings when it comes to lavishing emotions. Miku is in fact one of the most popular holograms, appearing in ads for Toyota and Dominos, collaborating with real musicians, and even appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman.

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Miku, whose name translates to "the first sound from the future", was created by Crypton Future Media in 2007. An aquamarine-haired, large-eyed star, she is supposed to be 16, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighs 42 kilos. How do you weigh a hologram?

Vocaloid is the name of a technology developed by the audio company Yamaha, explained on the website as something that allows "users to input melody and lyrics in order to synthesise singing. In other words, with this technology, singing can be produced without a singer."

So the songs are made by admirers, and the most popular make it to the concerts. A 2014 report in the Vulture says, "Miku is a media-studies professor’s dream – a wildly new model of pop stardom that’s both participatory and anti-hierarchical."

The technology is a few years old, but nowhere else except Japan has it gained popularity – till now. For the culture may now be making inroads into the US, as the video below, a report by Fusion media, details.