An AI-assisted song reached No. 1 on the U.S. Afrobeats chart week ending May 9, 2026, dethroning South African pop princess Tyla’s “Chanel” and the week before it topped the UK Afrobeats Chart. The song is now at the center of growing controversy, not only for its use of AI but representatives from Warner Music and Spinn Records are disputing key details surrounding the track and it’s credited artists.
The song, “Let Me Be” by The Second Voice is released on digital streaming platforms under Spinn Records. However, the song’s official music video was uploaded to YouTube featuring producer Elvin Cena and has surpassed 10 million views.
According to Warner Music representatives, Elvin Cena is not actually part of the song itself although he conducted a full interview with Okay Africa about the creation of the song.
Cena merely uploaded the song to his YouTube channel that has over 700,000 subscribers and added his name to the release as a feature. The company stated that the official artist behind the record is The Second Voice, who is signed to Spinn Records, with the song itself distributed through Warner Music. On Spotify writing and background vocals credits for the song goes to Mwape Chrishinka, Cena is not credited.
World Music Views interviewed The Second Voice, a 26 year old creator, who refuse to show his face and openly acknowledged using AI tools to create the vocals heard on the song.
“So after finding out and researching about the AI tools, I decided to give it a try,” he explained. “Then I wrote the song. And after that, I used the AI tools, and that’s how the song was created.”
Spinnin’ Records is owned by the Warner Music Group. The multinational music company acquired the Dutch electronic music label for over $100 million in September 2017.
Warner told World Music Views that the reason they have not issued a copyright strike for the music video on YouTube is because it already amassed 10 million views since its March 18 release and that works for their promotions. However, purely AI-generated material may not qualify for copyright protection in some countries, including the United States. U.S. where copyright law currently requires “human authorship.”
When directly asked whether the vocals on the track were his own voice, the artist, the Zambian native responded:
“It’s not my voice. Those are not my vocals. Like I’ve said, I used AI tools for the vocals.”
The Second Voice, who speaks with a heavy Zambian accent, described his entry into music as a hobby inspired by people around him growing up, including his father, who made beats. He explained that after struggling with his own singing voice and finding it difficult to secure collaborations with stronger vocalists as an emerging artist, he turned to AI-generated vocals as an alternative.
“The plan was to use AI for the vocals,” he said. “I didn’t even plan that the song was going to blow up like this. All I wanted was maybe some little attention from the people and then I start working with real people.”
He added that AI vocals sounded better “than me, myself, personally,” while noting that many human singers are still superior to AI-generated performances.
However, during out interview, he got testy when questions became more specific about the exact technology used to create the song. After The Second Voice confirmed the track was AI-assisted, a Warner representative repeatedly interrupted the interview and attempted to redirect the conversation away from the AI discussion.
“I think this is not the narrative,” the representative said after questions were raised about an AI-assisted song dethroning Tyla on the charts. “It’s not really an AI song. He produced and wrote everything himself.” A direct contradiction to the creator’s narrative.
When World Music Views attempted to ask which AI tool had been used to generate the vocals, another interruption followed.
“Let’s go to the next question,” the representative said.
The interview eventually ended abruptly after further attempts to clarify the production process behind the vocals.
The Second Voice intends to remain anonymous, throughout his career, even as Let Me Be generated almost $200,000 and surpasses 30 million streams on Spotify.
World Music Views contacted Elvin Cena, but he has not responded.
