First fully AI-generated track to enter a national music chart

“Verknallt in einen Talahon” (“In Love with a Talahon”), a fully AI-generated parody track credited to the Austrian producer Butterbro (b. Josua Waghubinger), debuted at No.48 on Germany’s Top 100 singles chart on 15 August 2024. Butterbro used the AI tool Udio to generate the music, vocals and artwork for the controversial track, which went viral on TikTok and peaked at No.3 on Spotify’s “Daily Viral Songs Global” chart for seven days in a row from 12 August 2024.

“Verknallt in einen Talahon” outperformed tracks by Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Tommy Richman and Sabrina Carpenter to land at No.48 in Germany, but its success was short-lived as it fell to No.83 on 22 August before dropping off the countdown altogether the following week.

AI had previously been used to enhance or complete existing records, most notably on The Beatles’ 2023 single “Now and Then”, but Butterbro’s surprise hit is the first time the technology has been utilised to create an entirely new chart entry.

Waghubinger had spoken of his desire to poke fun at “overtly macho behaviour” in the schlager pop throwback’s lyrics and video, “with a twinkle in the eye and without discriminating”. He also said that his overriding motivation had been to produce a track that would go viral on social media. As of 28 September 2024, the original version of “Verknallt in einen Talahon” had attracted over 7.52 million streams on Spotify since its release on 23 July.