The song We say no, no, no, to an asylum seekers’ center turns out to be a genuine sing-along song and debuted this week at number 28 in the Single Top 100, mainly thanks to streaming figures. The song has now been listened to 800,000 times on Spotify.
The song has been viewed almost 300,000 times on YouTube. A radio hit will We say no, no, no, to an asylum seekers’ center don’t be fast. The text is too politically colored for that, with sentences such as: ‘All borders open, our country is in need, the Netherlands is drowning, our heritage is dying’ and ‘They call us racists, fascists, people with hatred, because we fight for our women on the streets.’
We contacted the creator of the song via email, who calls himself JW Broken Veteran. The creator says he wants to remain anonymous. He does say he is a 40-year-old man from Rotterdam.
Suddenly success
JW Broken Veteran has not been very successful with his music so far. He has been sharing his songs on Spotify and YouTube for over six months now, but the vast majority of the dozens of songs he has released have not yet been listened to a thousand times. There are protest songs with titles like Borders closed and My Netherlands, where has your pride gone?. Since a week and a half We say no no no to an asylum seekers’ center explodes.
The creator readily admits that he uses artificial intelligence (AI) for his songs. “I can’t sing, but I can write poems. And the tools for AI are available, so why not use them?” he says.
Spotify agree
In any case, streaming service Spotify does not object to the lyrics of JW Broken Veteran. “The song does not violate our platform policy,” said a Spotify spokesperson.
“I heard the song somewhere on social media last week,” responds pop specialist Johan van Slooten. “Who makes something like that? I thought. AI. And you can score a hit with it too. In the United States it has already happened a few times that songs generated by AI have ended up in the Billboard charts. And that is now also possible here.”
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JW Broken Veteran is not the first to be successful with AI. Let Babylon Run, which is said to be behind a Norwegian musician, has tapped into a niche. And last year there was a summer hit in the Netherlands with the title So Summerbehind which a certain John de Koning was hidden.
Veteran
The Rotterdam musician is a veteran himself and says he served in Afghanistan. That’s why he chose Veteran in his stage name. “I have PTSD, so I think ‘broken’ sounds nice..”
The number We say no, no, no, to an asylum seekers’ center According to the maker, it has become so popular because it taps into a widely supported sentiment. “In some places, women no longer dare to walk alone on the street, we shouldn’t want that. Moreover, this is a song that simply sounds good.”
Despite or perhaps because of the sudden success, but also because of threats, the Rotterdam songwriter stops making protest songs. His Instagram account has now been taken offline.
Association with the extreme right
“Because of the hype and the association with the extreme right, among others, I have decided to stop making protest music,” he says.
“The songs that are now online will remain online, but no new songs will be added, except for one song. That is scheduled to go online on November 4 at 10 a.m. on YouTube and Spotify. This is the song My final chord. It calls for thoughtfulness and that words do more than violence, riots and trash-talking. I also announce in this song that this is my last ‘fight song’.”
JW Broken Veteran does not want to comment further on the nature of the threats he says he receives.
Pop specialist Van Slooten hopes not We say no, no, no, to an asylum seekers’ center comes to number 1. “AI is not going to take over in the music scene,” he predicts. “I expect that there will always be a majority of songs that are made by humans. Human input will always remain, because music is emotion. I’m not that pessimistic.”