Artificial intelligence-generated football songs are gaining popularity among fans ahead of next month’s FIFA World Cup, with fan-made anthems attracting millions of views across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
The trend has sparked debate within the music industry over copyright, artist compensation and the growing influence of AI in creative production.
Many supporters have embraced the AI-generated tracks, with some users on social media even favouring them over official World Cup songs released by FIFA and mainstream artistes.
Among the latest official releases are tournament tracks by Jelly Roll, Carin Leon and Shakira.
The AI trend reportedly began with “Imbattables,” a song dedicated to the French national team released in February by AI music creator Crystalo. The track, which highlights players including Kylian Mbappe, quickly gained traction online.
Similar AI-generated songs soon emerged for countries including Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Germany, many using comparable formats, beats and player name chants.
Brazilian producer Guilherme Maia, known professionally as M4IA, said he used AI-assisted production techniques to create one of the viral songs, though he stressed that the final work still involved significant human input.
Experts say the growing popularity of AI-generated music highlights unresolved issues surrounding authorship and copyright, particularly regarding how AI models are trained using existing creative works.
Jason Palamara, an assistant professor of music technology at Indiana University, said concerns remain over whether copyrighted material used to train AI systems adequately credits original artists.
Analysts also noted that some AI-generated songs display technical inconsistencies, including incorrect pronunciations and repetitive musical structures.
Despite such concerns, industry observers believe the technology is proving effective for short-form, chant-style music designed for sporting events and social media engagement.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico in June and July.
