Who won the AI jazz competition at Montreux?

The Montreux Jazz Festival is one of the world's most celebrated music events, held each July in the romantic lakeside city of Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. What began as a traditional jazz festival has steadily expanded its scope to embrace rock, pop, blues and electronic music, maintaining a spirit of experimentation with each edition.

This year's 60th edition pushed that spirit further with a bold new venture: the festival hosted its first-ever AI jazz competition, "AI Love Jazz," recognizing original jazz compositions created with AI tools.

On Friday (local time), "Frozen Edge" was named the overall winner of the competition at The Grand Finale Gala, held as part of the AI Love Jazz program. The piece is the work of Dr. Dragon — a stage name — and reimagines all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets as jazz songs.

Behind the Dr. Dragon alias is Yong Ho-seong, 59, a former first vice minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Yong passed the national civil service exam in 1991 and joined what was then the Ministry of Culture and Sports — now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — in 1993, going on to serve as first vice minister after more than 30 years in public office. Even during his government career, he never hid his passion for music, playing drums and making his debut as a music critic. After retiring last August, he completed an AI composition course at SM Universe, the education arm of SM Entertainment, and threw himself into songwriting.

Working under the Dr. Dragon name, Yong has been reinterpreting all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets — each a 14-line poem — as songs. His process begins with writing his own lyrics inspired by each sonnet, then feeding the musical concept and lyrics as prompts into the AI music-generation tool Suno. He then refines the output using a digital audio workstation. The results span not only jazz but also hip-hop, K-pop and other genres.

Yong entered three songs in the competition. "Frozen Edge" advanced through the semifinals and a top-five round before being named the overall winner. The organizers presented him with a gold disc as a prize.

"Frozen Edge" draws on Shakespeare's Sonnet 97, which likens the emptiness left by separation to a cold winter. The track pairs an upbeat, shoulder-swaying jazz melody with a cool, wintry atmosphere that suits the summer season — and both the composition and the vocals were generated by AI.

Yong's broader goal is to complete all 154 songs under the project name "Shakespeare Sonnet Project: DiVerse" and release them as a series of genre-specific albums.

"Using AI as a tool, I was able to start a new career in music creation," Yong told Yonhap News Agency. "I believe this competition will mark the moment AI begins to truly transform the music creation ecosystem."