AI-Created Parody Song About Immigrants Hits German Top 50 Charts

A song about immigrants, generated entirely through artificial intelligence (AI), has broken into Germany’s Top 50, a significant milestone for a leading music market. Titled “Verknallt in einen Talahon,” the parody track merges modern lyrics, many rooted in racial stereotypes, with 60s schlager pop.

The song currently holds the 48th spot in Germany, the fourth largest music market globally. Since its release less than a month ago, it has amassed 3.5 million streams on Spotify and ranks third on the platform’s global viral chart.

Created by Josua Waghubinger, who goes by the artist name Butterbro, the song’s chorus was produced by inputting his lyrics into Udio, a generative AI tool capable of synthesizing vocals and music from simple text prompts. After positive feedback on TikTok, he used AI to generate an additional verse.

“I think there’s still enough creative freedom in the song to make it a creative project,” said Waghubinger, an IT professional and hobby musician, in an interview with German music podcast Die Klangküche (The Sound Kitchen).

The song, translating to “In Love with a Talahon,” draws significant attention not only for its technological innovation but also for its controversial lyrical content. “Talahon” is a Germanized version of the Arabic phrase “taeal huna,” meaning “come here.” The term is often used derogatorily to describe young men with immigrant backgrounds in Germany.

The lyrics parody classic 1960s “good girl falls for bad boy” themes, similar to the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack.” The AI-generated singer idolizes a man who flaunts a “Louis belt, a Gucci bag and Air Max trainers” and “smells like an entire perfume shop.” When annoyed, she notes he’s “as sweet as baklava,” possibly to affiliate him with Turkish culture.

Waghubinger intended the song to mock overtly macho behavior “with a twinkle in the eye and without discriminating,” but admitted his primary aim was to create a track that would go viral on social media. “That was the challenge I set myself,” he noted in the podcast.

However, Marie-Luise Goldmann, culture editor at conservative broadsheet Die Welt, stated the song balances precariously between being a parody and being discriminatory. “The mixing of migrant youth culture with German schlager conservatism alone will thrill as many listeners as it offends,” she observed. She added that it’s debatable whether Butterbro is trivializing, glorifying, or attacking the stereotypes presented in the song.

Felicia Aghaye, a writer for the music magazine Diffus, labeled the song’s popularity “doubly problematic” because “talahon” is widely recognized as an insult among young Germans and Austrians. “Right-wing groups use the term to cultivate fear and xenophobia,” she explained. “What’s problematic is that Butterbro doesn’t seem to grasp the negative implications of the term. His track is inadvertently aiding in making the term more mainstream.”

Numerous AI-generated songs, blending 1960s schlager pop with vulgar lyrics, are circulating across German social media. The use of AI in music production is becoming increasingly prevalent. In 2023, the Beatles released “Now and Then” using AI to recreate John Lennon’s vocals. Similarly, a track featuring an AI-generated Tupac Shakur voice briefly appeared on Canadian rapper Drake’s Instagram but was removed after legal threats.

As AI continues to advance, its role in the music industry is expanding, raising both opportunities and controversies.

Source: The Guardian