The Beatles Make Grammy History With AI: How Tech Completed Their Final Song

The Beatles are one of the bestselling and most recognizable bands of all time. Over 60 years after their debut, The Beatles are still winning awards, and this time it’s partially thanks to artificial intelligence.

What Happened: In June 2023, surviving Beatles member Paul McCartney announced plans to make the last Beatles song ever, a track titled "Now and Then."

The song was released in November 2023, featuring music from McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon, the four members of the band, as reported by The Verge.

The track was created using a demo of Lennon's vocals from the late 1970s and music parts added by McCartney, Starr, and Harrison in the 1990s. The track was never released and thanks to the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the old demo was cleaned up and released as the band's last song.

McCartney and Starr completed the song in 2021 with the help of filmmaker Peter Jackson and machine-learning technology. McCartney went on to say that the AI tech used was different than what some people were reporting.

"To be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It's all real and we all play on it," McCartney said in 2023. "We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years."

"Now and Then" hit number one on several country charts after its release.

On Sunday, The Beatles track took home the honor of Best Rock Performance at the 67^th Grammy Awards, which aired on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, units of Paramount Global PARA PARAA.

Read Also: The Beatles Cinematic Universe: How Fab Four Members Will Come Together For Director Sam Mendes On The Big Screen

Why It's Important: With Sunday night's win, The Beatles have now won eight Grammy Awards from 25 nominations as a group. The track is believed to be the first to use AI and win a Grammy Award.

The band won their first awards in 1964, winning Best New Artist and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for "A Hard Day's Night."

“Now and Then” beat out Green Day, Pearl Jam, The Black Keys, Idles and St. Vincent for Best Rock Performance. The song was also nominated for Record of the Year, which it lost to Kendrick Lamar ("Not Like Us"), who won five awards and led the way in wins Sunday.

Lennon's son Sean Lennon accepted the Grammy Award on behalf of the band.

"Play The Beatles music to your kids. I feel like the world can't afford to forget about people like The Beatles," Lennon said while accepting the award. "We need this music in the world. We need peace and love. We need the magic of the Sixties to stay alive."

Along with The Beatles winning a Grammy Award, The Rolling Stones, another iconic rock band from the same era, took home Best Rock Album.

Read Next:

• Peter Jackson On Directing Beatles’ ‘Now And Then’ Video: ‘Sheer Terror At The Thought Of Letting Everyone Down’

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