AI Artists to Perform Live at Inaugural AI Music Awards in Los Angeles

AI artists will somehow play ‘live’ at their own awards ceremony in November

September 17, 2026 By Tim Ingham

Warning: there’s going to be a fair amount of inverted commas in this story. It’s the only way to get through it.

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AI-generated ‘artists’ including Xania Monet will ‘perform’ live on stage at the first AI Music Awards in Los Angeles in November.

That’s according to SIQA – The Sonic Intelligence Academy – which describes the event as “the first show of its kind”.

The ceremony takes place at The Mayan in Downtown LA on November 13 , and will be streamed worldwide.

SIQA says the ‘performances’ will be  “hybrid human + AI showcases staged across the night” , featuring “a live band, immersive visuals, and more”.

The creators behind each AI ‘artist’ will be “directing the stage”, according to SIQA , at what the company bills as “a one-of-a-kind experience celebrating the humans behind the art”.

SIQA has not spelled out how the vocals of ‘acts’ that exist only as AI-generated recordings will be delivered on the night.

‘Performers’ announced so far are Xania Monet , Olivia B Moore , Chaisen Hale , EJ Rogers , and Sheena Taylor , with the awards website also listing Godfellow and Aries Ivory .

SIQA says further ‘performers’ and “celebrity appearances” will be announced in the weeks ahead.

The company, which is backed by 1517 Fund , operates what it calls the music industry’s first AI music charts.

SIQA launched its AI music charts earlier this year, and on September 10 announced a “Verified Registry” and companion app through which artists can log the extent of AI involvement in their tracks.

Of 1,551 AI tracks submitted to those charts in the first quarter of this year, 90.4% were made using Suno and 75.8% were distributed by DistroKid , as previously reported by MBW .

Xania Monet is the AI ‘act’ created by songwriter Telisha “Nikki” Jones , who fed her own poetry into Suno to produce the track How Was I Supposed To Know?

Monet was signed by Neil Jacobson ‘s Hallwood Media in a reported multi-million-dollar deal, after a bidding war in which offers reached $3 million .

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal last year, Jones said: “I grew up singing in church, but I can’t do vocals as powerful as what I created with Xania.”

At the time, MBW noted that music generated on platforms such as Suno arrives with no live component: “There’s no artist to tour, no stage to build, no venue to book.”

The AI Music Awards are sponsored by companies including voice AI platform Deepgram , which has come on board as a Silver Sponsor.

“AI is rapidly expanding what’s possible with sound and voice, which makes trust and transparency increasingly important,” said Scott Stephenson , Chief Executive Officer of Deepgram .

“We’re excited to support SIQA in bringing creators, technologists, and the industry together to explore what responsible innovation can look like as this space evolves.”

Awards will be handed out across 25 categories, headed by AI Song of the Year, AI Artist of the Year, AI Album of the Year, and AI Producer of the Year.

Ten genre categories cover R&B, country, gospel, pop, rock/alt, hip-hop, jazz, musical theatre, comedy, and international music.

SIQA will also present the first SIQA Visionary Award at the ceremony.

Winners will be picked by verified artists on the SIQA Registry rather than by chart performance.

“No anonymous polls. No black-box algorithms. Peers honoring peers,” says SIQA .

Tickets for the ceremony are priced at $250 , with SIQA saying the venue is capped at 600 seats and that fewer than 100 have been released to the public. Music Business Worldwide

_Originally reported by [Music Business Worldwide](https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/ai-artists-will-somehow-play-live-at-their-own-awards-ceremony-in-november/)._