Lyrics: Junqing Li (1897-1966)

Original Composer: Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

Vocal, New Composition & Main Production: Adai Song

Additional Production: Jack Choi

Mixing Engineer: Sarah Long

Mastering Engineer: Rachel Alina

Dolby Atmos Mixing Engineer: Yuanming Zhang

Carmen 2025 is a producer-led re-composition of Bizet’s “Habanera” into a vocal, dancefloor-facing house track that stages “exoticism” as both sonic material and a critical problem. Technically, the piece re-maps operatic melody into an EDM form, with a continuous 4-on-the-floor grid starting the first drop, modern sub-bass replacing the iconic bass figure, and dense timbral layering that treats East Asian instruments as rhythmic and textural engines rather than “color.”

The production foregrounds micro-timbral gestures—guzheng lúnzhǐ tremolo, pitch bends, and chromatic “impossible” lines in common Gu Zheng tuning—alongside Peking Opera percussion (tānggǔ, dàbó/xiǎobó, xiǎoluó, bǎngǔ) and Korean junggu and Taiko patterns, spatialized through automation (stereo panning, filtered risers/downers, vocal-chop ornamentation) to create a deliberately hybrid soundstage.

Artistically, the track moves Carmen across three historical imaginations (1870s French opera → 1960s Hong Kong Mandarin pop → 2020s Chinese EDM), using the Mandarin lyrics’ cynical, gender-flipped stance and digitally constructed “virtual ensemble” to reclaim authorship and agency—turning heritage-coded timbres into a contemporary feminist, club-oriented argument about how “Asian” sound is heard, packaged, and rewritten in global circulation.