A new humanoid robot, the HRP-4 or “diva-bot,” has learned to sing by mimicking a human singer, enabling it to sound natural and to sing with more expression than any previous robot.

A research team from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tokyo used a new technology called VocalListener to observe a real singer in action and synthesize the appropriate notes of the song with the help of Yamaha’s existing voice synthesizing software, Vocaloid.

Facial expressions were generated with a second new technology, called Vocawatcher, which analyzes video of a singer to mimic the expressions.