AI-generated song clones Brazilian artists' voices to plagiarize Taylor Swift
An AI system cloned the voices of Brazilian artists Luísa Sonza and Dilsinho to create an unauthorized Portuguese translation of Taylor Swift's song 'The Fate of Ophelia'. The resulting track 'A Sina de Ofélia' went viral on social media and received over 3,000 radio plays without identified authorship or promotion, creating legal questions about AI music rights.
What happened
A song titled 'A Sina de Ofélia' was created using generative AI to clone the voices of Brazilian artists Luísa Sonza and Dilsinho. The song reproduces a Portuguese-language translation of Taylor Swift's 'The Fate of Ophelia' without authorization, with the artists unaware their voices were used.
The track accumulated millions of plays on Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. According to a Crowley radio monitoring report commissioned by BBC News Brasil, the song was played 3,064 times across 47 radio stations, though the actual count may be higher as monitoring covered only select regions and weekday daytime hours.
Reported impact
The song achieved significant radio airtime comparable to the most-played songs in Brazil in some weeks, despite no identified promotional investment from artists or record labels. Ecad retained R$ 50,000 in royalties due to undefined authorship.
Index analysis
The case exposes legal gaps regarding AI use in music production, particularly concerning voice cloning and unauthorized derivative works. Unknown authorship made it impossible to determine responsibility or route royalty payments correctly.
Governance controls
Affected artists had not filed legal action as of the reporting date.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.