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'Heart on My Sleeve': AI-generated viral TikTok song mimics Drake and The Weeknd

'Heart On My Sleeve' was pulled from major streaming platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify, soon after it went viral

AI-generated songs are going viral on TikTok like never before. This time it is Drake and The Weeknd's 'Heart On My Sleeve'. While it's illegal and the song has already been removed from music streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple music, but the ability to mash two contrasting elements together has, once again, proved to be a popular use of the technology.

Generative AI tools that mimic the voices of popular artistes are not the same as a real singer. At best, they sound like a lethargic performance from a burnt-out star, leaning too heavily on autotune. In case you scrolled through TikTok, you might have uncovered something particularly exciting, a brand-new collaboration between two of our biggest pop heavyweights, Drake and the Weeknd, called 'Heart On My Sleeve.'

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What is 'Heart On My Sleeve' about?

On April 14, a mysterious musician going by the moniker, "Ghostwriter", shared a song called 'Heart On My Sleeve' on his social media accounts. It features Drake and The Weeknd as the lead vocalists. They both sing and rap about Selena Gomez in the song. The song is so realistic that if you weren't aware of it, you may believe it to be the actual thing. However, it's not, and it's just another creation of artificial intelligence. People have since shared the two-minute fake song a lot of times on social media, marvelling at how authentic-sounding it is.

A user wrote, "Crazy what AI is doing. Drake and The Weekend AI made the song. NGL the song slaps crazy s**t AI must be stopped but damn this is going on rotation for me. Check it out before it gets nuked from the internet. let me know what you think"

The song kicks off with a verse by “Drake,” with the lines, “I came in with my ex like Selena to flex (aye)/ bumpin’ Justin Bieber, the fever ain’t left (aye),” and, “She think that I need her, kick her to the curb,” the latter of which is “sung” in a higher-pitch, just like a typical Drake chorus. The song ends right as “The Weeknd” swoops in to croon his verse, which begins, “Got these pearls on my neck/ got these girls on my check/ like Selena, baby.”

'The Real Drake and Weekend should actually do the track'

Universal Music Group, the label that represents Drake and The Weeknd, stepped in and had the song removed from the major music streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer. YouTube and TikTok also pulled the song but as this is the internet, nothing is ever, truly gone. Before the copyright claim, the song had been streamed nearly 600,000 times on Spotify, and had more than 15 million views on TikTok. 

A user on Twitter wrote, "Now that the copyright holders have removed the AI Drake and Weekend track from all platforms, the Real Drake and Weekend should actually do the track. Artists should build their own AI models as a pilot program for new content."

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