Papaoutai (Afro Soul)

Papaoutai (Afro Soul) is an afro-soul reworking of Stromae's 2013 hit, credited to mikeeysmind, Chill77 and Unjaps. Wikipedia describes it as an AI-generated cover released on 20 December 2025 by the Swedish label Unjaps AB, and it names mikeeysmind and Chill77 as Swedish producers. Presse-Citron reports that the voice, backing vocals and orchestra were all generated by AI, and that Unjaps is a Sweden-based label specialising in AI covers of hit songs.

The track took off after a YouTube upload on 9 January 2026, helped by lip-sync clips from the singer Arsene Mukendi, which at first led viewers to think he was the vocalist; he acknowledged the AI origin on 12 January. It debuted at number 168 on Spotify's global chart in January and reached number 2 on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales, with over 14 million Spotify streams in its first month, per Wikipedia. The French rights body SACEM said it was not fraud but a cover with the original writers credited, so royalties go to Stromae and the original rights holders. Swiss radio SRF declined to play it, citing unclear origins, and Deezer labelled it as AI-generated. On 2026-10-06 Spotify showed about 202.0 million plays for this version and the lyric video on YouTube about 23.9 million views.