If you count Amazon’s Alexa among your closest friends from the past year, why not invite her to ring in 2018 on Sunday night? The voice assistant will even show off her singing chops, again, with a little “Auld Lang Syne.”
For the first time ever, Alexa is teaming with real humans who can sing. The Amazon employee a cappella group Vocally Self Critical provides the harmonies for the classic New Year’s Eve tune.
Users who unwrapped a new Amazon Echo or Dot for Christmas can simply say, “Alexa, sing Auld Lang Syne” to activate the skill.
A new video, above, shows some behind-the-scenes footage of the recording, and Amazon provided a list of the employees — with a range of vocal styles and job titles — who chipped in:
Soprano
- Eleanor Rhode, support and operations manager
- Alex Rogers, marketing program manager
- Sarah Sandberg, research analyst
- Janna Taylor, executive assistant
Mezzo/Alto
- Alexis Atkins, account executive
- Kristin Lavigne, product manager
- Lindsay MacLean, senior content manager
- Ruby Thaler, executive assistant
Tenor
- Peter Aldrich, brand specialist
- Mark Bailey, software development engineer
- Andrew Hamada, senior marketing manager
- Alex Simms, software development engineer
Baritone/Bass
- Alex King, web developer
- Joe Klonowski, software development engineer
- Josh Slobin, senior marketing manager
- Sam Torzewski, software development engineer
