‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ AI lead this year’s Hanukkah video crop

A cappella Hanukkah parodies of songs from the Netflix hit “KPop Demon Hunters” were some of the most widely shared new music videos this holiday. But perhaps the most noticeable trend on YouTube this year was just how many were created using AI.

As tradition requires, Jewish a cappella groups such as the Maccabeats, Six13 and Y-Studs all put out new holiday parodies of pop hits. Both the Maccabeats and Six13 did mashups of songs from “KPop,” the uber-popular Netflix kids musical that became the streamer’s most successful original movie ever, while Y-Studs came out with a tribute to legendary pop-rock band The Jonas Brothers.

Branching out, if you search YouTube for Hanukkah (or Chanukah — or any other of the myriad of English spellings of the holiday), you may be surprised by how many of the latest releases are generated in whole or part by artificial intelligence.

The YouTube channel Inspire Beats, for example, has been cranking out new videos at a rate of about one per day in recent weeks, garnering tens of thousands of views on a variety of songs sung in different voices and musical styles, all created by a Jewish mother who has never played an instrument in her life.

“I’ve seen how powerful music can be to inspire people, and I dreamed of making good, soulful Jewish music with Torah messages to lift our spirits and make people happy,” explained Leah Bar Shalom, a graphic designer and illustrator living in a West Bank settlement in Israel. “I started writing songs, and I use a bunch of different programs to create the music and the videos.”

Bar Shalom, a mother of two who immigrated to Israel 18 years ago from California, told The Times of Israel she’d never made music before she launched her YouTube channel in June 2025. But now, she’s able to put together a complete music video from start to finish in an average of four to five hours.

“It’s not just pasting my lyrics into a chatbot,” Bar Shalom said. “I use a few different programs to create and edit everything the way I want it.”

Bar Shalom insisted she doesn’t publish anything until she’s completely happy with its artistic and lyrical quality.

“It’s only worthwhile if I think it will touch people’s hearts,” she said.

In one recent video, for example, “Our Weapon is Light,” a raspy, deep male voice sings in English and Hebrew over guitar and drum rhythms about combating rising antisemitism and hatred through increased Jewish pride and faith. On screen, the video cuts between scenes from anti-Israel rallies, Israeli hostages being returned from captivity in Gaza, Jews praying at the Western Wall, and holiday imagery, a seamless mix of computer-generated clips and real-life videos that makes the line between real and imaginary feel essentially irrelevant.

“As an artist myself, I don’t feel comfortable with many of the ways AI is being used for now, but I’m trying to use this tool in a Godly way to inspire people, and I think that’s important,” Bar Shalom said. “Parts of this are very weird, but this is how things are now, and the world is going to get crazier, so why wouldn’t I use this tool now?”

Bar Shalom’s videos include links to her Etsy shop, where she sells “Israel-inspired Jewish merch and art.” Some of her T-shirt designs have sold well, allowing her to earn some money while residing “in the middle of nowhere,” she said.

Bar Shalom said that while her videos get some hate comments online, the vast majority of feedback is positive.

“I was afraid to open this channel, but I get so much love and support online, it makes me cry,” she said. “People tell me how much Israel means to them, and how they are praying for us. I’m doing this to touch hearts, not for the sake of making fake music.”

Many in the hands of the few

Meanwhile, the Maccabeats’ a cappella KPop Demon Hunters Hanukkah Medley has been the most-watched new Hanukkah music video of the season, a joyful take on the viral movie songs that many parents of young kids already know by heart.

The Maccabeats, a group of religious guys who came together at New York’s Yeshiva University in 2007, essentially created the genre of Jewish holiday parodies when their 2010 video Candlelight went viral. The band’s entry for this year is a mashup of five of the top hits from “KPop Demon Hunters,” animated with avatars of the band’s members singing, lighting candles, spinning dreidels and frying latkes over parodied lyrics such as “I don’t think you’re ready for my latkes.”

If you aren’t already familiar with “KPop Demon Hunters,” it will be difficult to explain the ridiculously huge appeal of the movie about Huntrix, a Korean pop girl group that secretly hunts demons on the side. Suffice it to say that the animated cartoon musical is now the most popular Netflix movie of all time, with a soundtrack that has led Billboard music charts for much of the year.

That made it an obvious choice for parodies this year, so it’s no wonder that Six13, another New York-based a cappella group, also chose to cover it this year.  (Embarrassing, perhaps, but not as bad as the “Frozen” debacle of 2014, when numerous groups made Passover parodies of Princess Elsa singing “Let it go.” There’s also a French version.)

Six13 focused on just two KPop hits, Golden and Soda Pop, and uses live action video instead of studio animation, so it feels a bit different from the Maccabeats version. Both have been popular, although the Maccabeats version is far ahead in page views as of this writing. But Six13 has led in the field of creative mashups in recent years, with brilliant holiday parodies honoring singers such as Queen, Billy Joel, and Elton John, and shows like “Wicked,” “Star Wars” and “Hamilton.”

Meanwhile, Y-Studs, also based in New York, made an a cappella mashup of songs by The Jonas Brothers, the former Disney icons and Grammy award-winning artists. The new video has Hanukkah takes on the band’s hits like “Year 3000,” “Play My Music,” “Sucker,” and “Burning Up.”

Other notable new videos include “The Hanukkah Song” by Cantor Azi Schwartz and Shira Davis of the Park Avenue Synagogue and the New York City Children’s Chorus, and new tracks from Matisyahu, Miami Boys Choir, The Solomon Brothers, and The Portnoy Brothers.