60 Years of Montreux, One Brand-New First: Inside AI.LOVE.JAZZ and the 0.4-Point Race to Crown Montreux's Representative AI Music Artist

The Montreux Jazz Festival has spent six decades collecting legendary firsts on the shores of Lake Geneva. For its 60th anniversary edition this summer, the festival's orbit produced a first of a very different kind — and right now, it is coming down to four-tenths of a percentage point.

'AI.LOVE.JAZZ', the official satellite event marking the Montreux Jazz Festival's 60th anniversary, wrapped its live program on July 10 after three days at the Casino Barrière Montreux.
Billed as the world's first global AI jazz music contest, the event gathered AI-made jazz tracks from around the world, narrowed them down to 15 finalists from 8 countries, and put them on stage in a gala showcase. But the story didn't end when the lights went down in Montreux — it expanded into a global fan vote on the AIDOL101 platform, an official tie-in event held separately from the satellite program itself. The final title — the representative AI music artist to emerge from Montreux's orbit — is being decided not by a jury, but by fans, with voting open until July 25 at 11:59 PM Swiss time (CEST). And it could not be closer.

A photo finish, 0.4 points apart

As of this week, the jazz track "Rain in Cuba" by Thrivilo (South Korea) holds the lead in the global vote — with the melodic rock entry "Astra Inclinant, Sed Non Obligant" by Ratroders (Argentina) trailing by just 0.4 percentage points.

Two songs, two continents, two completely different sounds — a smoky jazz number and a soaring rock anthem — separated by less than half a percentage point, with the remaining thirteen finalists still splitting the rest of the field. Whoever takes the crown, the margin means one thing: the fans voting in the final hours will decide it.

The vote is open to anyone in the world, free of charge, and — rare for K-pop-adjacent fandom votes — no sign-up is required. Fans can listen to all 15 tracks and cast their pick at aidol101.com/c/montreux-2026 until the deadline.

What went down in Montreux

The three-day satellite event (July 8–10) ran like a festival within a festival.
AI-generated jazz tracks from the 15 finalists filled the gala showcase, while a masterclass session pulled back the curtain on how virtual artists are actually made — from vocal synthesis to persona design. Pulse9, the Korean techtainment company operating the AIDOL101 platform that hosts the vote, ran the masterclass and gala; its CEO Jieun Park sat on the Final Review judging panel that selected the 15 finalists now facing the public vote.

The finalist list itself reads like a small atlas: entries from South Korea, the United States, Spain, Brazil, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and Argentina. Some titles lean charmingly local — one Korean entry is a jazz track titled "Lotus Night in Montreux," another goes by the pun-forward "Body & Seoul" — while Brazil's Stella Sypher brought the bossa-tinged "A Little Closer."

"I heard all fifteen teams in Montreux as a judge, but the last seat at the table belongs to the audience, not the jury," said Park. "A race measured in decimal points — the AI music artist who comes to represent the Montreux Jazz Festival's stage will be made by whoever votes before the clock runs out."

IITERNITI steps in as campaign ambassador

For K-pop fans, there is a familiar face attached to the campaign: IITERNITI, K-pop's first AI girl group, is serving as the official ambassador of the Montreux vote. Fresh off wrapping promotions for their first full-length album, the group appeared around the AI.LOVE.JAZZ gala in Montreux — a five-years-active virtual senior cheering on a class of rookie AI musicians hoping to debut. It is the kind of scene that could only exist in the AI artist ecosystem: an AI idol passing the torch to AI newcomers, with human fans deciding who gets it.

IITERNITI debuted in 2021 as the first AI girl group in K-pop and has since taken virtual K-pop to unexpected stages — from a solo concert to invited performances at the UN agency ITU's 'AI for Good' summit in Geneva. Their presence in Montreux connects two worlds the industry keeps insisting are separate: legacy festival culture and the new generation of AI-born performers.

What's at stake for the Top 3

The top three finishers won't just get bragging rights. They are set to receive live stage opportunities and an intensive accelerating program, among other support designed to push winning projects onto the global scene (full details are listed on the campaign page).

And the voting isn't meant to end at spectating. The Montreux campaign is the first global experiment in what AIDOL101 — Pulse9's discovery platform for new AI artists — is built around: "pick your bias, and build your bias," with fans able to participate as creators and earn rewards tied to their contribution.

All artists in the campaign are openly presented as AI-created virtual artists — no pretending otherwise — with creator contribution and rights protection as platform principles.

The clock is running

Sixty years in, Montreux is still in the business of firsts. This one gets decided by whoever presses the vote button before July 25, 11:59 PM CEST (July 26, 7 AM KST).

Listen to all 15 finalists and vote at aidol101.com/c/montreux-2026

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