u/AnimalsChasingCars

Josh Fawaz's A.I. cover of Like a Prayer has hit number #1 on Australia's national airplay chart and commercial radio has absolutely hammered it. 

But apparently the singer isn't even real! 

There is no vocalist credited for the extremely prominent lead vocal and, listening to it, it's blatantly AI generated. No human effort required. Fawaz has kept quiet on the matter and continues to promote. 

What I find insane is that Nova, KIIS and Australian commercial radio can apparently put an AI-generated track into massive rotation without any disclosure whatsoever.

We've spent the last few years hearing about how AI might eventually threaten musicians. Apparently “eventually” meant 2026.

Has the public already accepted AI-generated music? Or has commercial radio just realised that if they don't tell us, most people can't tell the difference and won't ask? Is this now normalised from here on in? 

For context: 

#1 Australian National Radio Airplay Chart - 1,037 spins in one week

#1 again the following week - 956 spins

#2 ARIA Australian Artist Singles

#4 ARIA Dance Singles

EDIT: It seems that it's not just the vocals that are AI generated, but the entire song. All it takes is a single sentence prompt and Suno generates the entire track. These days lots of similar "artists" use the "spray and pray" model, where they prompt Suno to mass-produce hundreds of zero-effort tracks until one catches. We're now flooded with this A.I. slop and it's completely devaluing actual human artists. A.I. is not a "tool" when it is 99% of the process.

EDIT 2: A few people have pointed out that nobody cares about commercial radio or charts. Fair enough, but they're still yardsticks of industry acceptance. The point isn't whether you personally listen to Nova - it's how quickly the institutions of the music industry have embraced and normalised AI-generated music. That shift has much broader implications beyond commercial radio...

Really good to see this show back. I think it's going to be a pretty fun season. And great to see Margaret Pomeranz back on our screens. 5 stars!