Bad Bunny AI Song "NostalgIA" Controversy

Overview

Bad Bunny AI Song "NostalgIA" Controversy refers to a series of artificial intelligence songs created using Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny's voice. The songs went viral on TikTok in October 2023, especially the music "NostalgIA," created by FlowGPT, a self-proclaimed first artist prototype based on AI technology. Bad Bunny released a heated statement in early November on his WhatsApp channel asking any fan who likes the AI music to unfollow him and leave the group chat. His reply backfired into a series of jokes and ironic memes on TikTok in which people ranked their favorite AI Bad Bunny songs.

Background

On October, 4th, 2023, Chilean artist Mauricio Bustos released the AI-Generated music "NostalgIA" under the pseudonym, FlowGPT, on YouTube^[1]. The song (shown below) is about a man longing for a lost love and uses the AI voices of Justin Bieber, Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny. The music accumulated 9.3 million views and 346,000 likes in a month.

Developments

Bad Gyal Repost

Approximately a month after the music was released, on November 3rd, 2023, Spanish singer Bad Gyal uploaded a video on TikTok^[2] dancing and singing the AI song "NostalgiIA" (The sound has since been deleted from the platform), which mentions the musician in the phrase "No viene de España, pero es toda una Bad Gyal, sí, mis brazos son tu hábitat natural." The lyric is translated as "She doesn't come from Spain, but she's a Bad Gyal, yes, my arms are your natural habitat." Gyal's post (shown below) amassed over 10 million plays and 1.4 million likes in two weeks.

Bad Bunny's Response

On November 7th, 2023, Bad Bunny commented about the AI song "NostalgIA" in his WhatsApp group channel with his fans, saying that anyone who liked the song should leave the group chat, "You don't deserve to be my friend," the singer wrote in Spanish. "I don't want them on the tour either." X^[3] news page @AlertaNews24 shared Bad Bunny's full statement about the music (shown below), which amassed more than 629,000 views and 2,100 likes in two weeks.

Flow GPT's Response

A few hours after Bad Bunny's response, @flowgptmusic uploaded a video on TikTok^[4] replying to the rapper by saying "I didn't understand the message very well, since my algorithm tells me that m13rd4 is only made by humans… remember that I am a robot 🤖🌐💛 the future is already here." The post (shown below) amassed more than 11 million plays and 879,000 likes in two weeks.

Online Reactions

Although the music has been deleted from TikTok, users are constantly reuploading "NostalgIA" on the video platform. For example, On November 8th, 2023, TikTok^[5] user @lyricssongk posted a lyric video of "NostalgIA" (shown below, left), which amassed more than 5 million plays and 483,000 likes in two weeks. On November 10th, 2023, TikTok^[6] user @dj_jebabaltazar shared a video in which he played the AI song in a club in Mexico (shown below, right), amassing over 1.9 million plays and 225,000 likes in a week.

Various Reactions

Search Interest

External References