Producer Butterbro has achieved something unique: “Verknallt in einen Talahon” is the first AI-generated song to make it into the German charts. Critics see this not only as the displacement of human musicians, but as an aid to the shift to the right.
It was only a matter of time before an AI-generated song would hit the charts. Now it’s happening, and it makes you wonder: Are you OK? Or, as a Talahon would put it: Are you having problems?
“Verknallt in einen Talahon” is the name of the song, which melodically recalls German hits from the 60s and 70s. The only difference is that this one isn’t about wonderful holidays or loving grandma. Instead, a female AI voice warbles a declaration of love to a Talahon. “With a Louis belt, Gucci cap and Air Max shoes,” she enthuses, referring to the young man she met at the bumper car at the fair.
If you’re wondering what a Talahon actually is, we recommend reading the lyrics. With their concrete descriptions, the verses released by producer Butterbro, whose real name is Josua Waghubinger, offer the best available explanation to date of the new noun, which is currently nominated for the Youth Word of the Year 2024. “He shadowboxes and is the coolest of his bros, and the knife in his pocket is definitely not just for his bread and butter,” it says. That is – again in Talahonian terms – simply “wild in a different way”. Langenscheidt defines the youth word candidate as follows: “Comes from Arabic and stands for ‘come here’ and is used by and for people with stereotypical characteristics or behavior, example: ‘With my breast pocket I feel like a Talahon today.'”
According to Butterbro, he had the melody and vocals for his self-written lyrics created using the music generator website Udio. The anthem has been circulating on youth platforms such as TikTok for weeks. According to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”, it was removed from Spotify at one point due to unclear copyright information. The copyright issue now seems to have been resolved. The fact that the AI has now entered the German charts at number 48 between Beyoncé and Taylor Swift shows that no matter how much Swift can bind her fans with the promise of authentic, human emotional processing, when it comes to the right catchy tune, most listeners turn a blind eye behind their Dior sunglasses.
Butterbro’s song is not the first to commemorate the Talahons: German rapper Hassan rapped in “Ta3al Lahon”, which is often used on TikTok as background music for all kinds of Talahon surveys: “Ta3al lahon, I’ll give you a stab, I’m the boss.” The new chart hit now not only switches from rap to pop, but also from the perspective of the boss to that of the wife and partner. The Talahon figure, once introduced into the world as a semi-ironic self-attribution, is thus supplemented by Butterbro with further alienation effects. The mere mixing of migrant youth culture with German pop conservatism is likely to delight as many listeners as it is to annoy them.
The AI hit is provocative, similar to Shirin David’s scandalous “Bauch Beine Po” and DJ Robin and Schürze’s scandalous song “Layla”. It does not hide the Talahons’ regressive gender image (“We’re about to go outside with the Kuzengs, just after dinner / But first I’ll butter him up with a knife”) – but whether he is trivializing it, glorifying it or denouncing it remains controversial. At the same time, the producer is faced with criticism of displacing human artists and of reinforcing the shift to the right by spreading racist clichés by giving the Talahon – loosely understood as a young migrant man without a decent job who does not abide by the rules of the constitutional state – the green light for shooting down.
At least the song resists pigeonholing all phenotypes: “Not everyone with that style is a Talahon,” sings the love interest. And one fan comments: “Music history was definitely made here.”
