Listen to Cortana sing the hits in this entertaining mashup with a piano and guitar

By Daniel Rubino
published

One of the most popular features in Microsoft's Cortana is the ability for 'chitchat' aka asking the assistant odd questions, jokes, or even to sing. Even though I find this stuff a bit…odd…it is clear that users love it, hence why Microsoft keeps adding new things.

The YouTube channel Sidenotes is a project "born as a way to "annotate" some musical performances". When you ask Cortana to sing a song on Windows Phone or Windows 10 the assistant will oblige with a variety of tunes. The Sidenotes crew recorded her audio and then wrote some music to accompany it.

The result? A two-minute musical journey that starts off funny but evolves into something meaningful. The layered guitars and piano add a unique element that goes beyond just YouTube entertainment.

Seeing as there are so many fans of Cortana on Windows Central, it only makes sense we share it.

Source: Sidenotes – YouTube; via Reddit; Thanks, majortom1981, for the tip!

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

23 Comments
  • Cool
  • Now that's a fan
  • Thats sooo funny!! hhahahahaha i liked it.
  • She's amazing
  • Yeah, but she still can't pronounce Hawaiian.
  • loll... She will soon
  • Awesome! You might find it odd Daniel, but this kind of things (videos going vital for example) get people interested in the products more than any ad could.
  • Is this really synthesized using microsegments or is it simply prerecorded? Cortana sounds so extremely human when she sings, I can barely imagine it's really a machine. Has anyone details on this?
  • They are pre-recorded. I met Jen Taylor and she mentioned she had just recorded some new songs for Cortana. Lovely woman.
  • When Microsoft bring cortana in Middle east countries ?
  • When Microsoft bring Cortana to Middle earth?
  • She already sing in french ! really nice voice here ;)
  • Wen in Sweden?
  • I miss the Microsoft that just dropped billions for ego's sake.
  • Well that was an effective use of Cortana development resources. Oh, and it doesn't work in the alpha.
  • Gimmicky. That's all it ever will be.
  • No "Danny Boy"?! That's my favorite one!
  • omg the begginning with the "thinking" sound LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL i totally died, I'm texting from heaven.
  • You can also ask her to tell stories. Even bedtime stories. Haha. Pretty amusing.
  • Love it
  • "Video not found"
  • I didn't really see much meaningfullness in it. But the solo in Auld Lang Syne was pretty good.
  • That was cool