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Janelle Monáe and MIA Perform Hologram Duet

Singers team up to create a bi-coastal concert.

The hologram circuit is getting more live these days. Janelle Monáe and M.I.A. shared the stage Thursday (April 4), while on opposite coasts of the country, via life-size 3-D projections of their likenesses.

M.I.A. performed in New York with a hologram of Monáe, while Monáe sang in West Hollywood with a hologram of M.I.A. 

"I wish I were in the audience because I'm sure it looked cooler from the audience, but it felt great," Monáe told the AP. "I felt M.I.A.'s spirit up there."

The two singers linked up prior to their separate shows to make a new version of the Electric Lady's "Q.U.E.E.N." and M.I.A.'s "Bad Girls." Ultimately, the performances used more advanced video mapping technology than required to launch the digital resurrection of Tupac at Coachella 2012.

M.I.A. said she would consider doing it again. "It's definitely cool for us and it's cool for me. I could be in 10 places at once ... Maybe make a whole band but I love my band, I wouldn't want them to be holograms. I would do some experimenting with different versions of myself, playing different instruments."

Eazy-E and Michael Jackson have also gotten the posthumous hologram treatment. In Japan, concert-giving holographic avatars are already somewhat the norm.

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(Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Audi)

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