The Olympic figure skating ice dancing event in Milan, Italy, on Monday required participants to go with a 1990s theme. Skaters chose music from popular artists of the era like Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and the Backstreet Boys. But the skaters from the Czech Republic included some music you may not recognize—because it’s an AI-generated song.
Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek, a brother-sister pair of figure skaters, had originally planned on performing to a song that may have some lyrics you would recognize. That’s because it’s an AI song that uses verbatim quotes from the 1998 song “You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals. The song was an international hit in the late 1990s.
As sports journalist Rodger Sherman explained: “The video is STUNNING, I have no idea how they thought they could get away with it.”
Journalist Shana Bartels first reported on the song choice back in November in her Patreon newsletter “Figure Skating for Baseball Nerds.” She notes that the version they skated to on Monday included the guitar riffs, but the lyrics had been changed so as not to plagiarize New Radicals.
You can hear the full song for yourself in a video from a practice routine a couple of months ago, which was identified as “One Two, Thunderstruck.” You can kind of hear how the AI song in the first third of the routine is trying to muster a guitar riff along the lines of AC/DC’s original “Thunderstruck,” but the vocals sound nothing like singers Bon Scott or Brian Johnson.
NBC, which has the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S., is notoriously protective of copyright, so you’ll likely have a hard time finding clips of the performance from Monday on any social media platforms. But the practice clip routine below reportedly has the same music used on Monday, but also includes just direct portions of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” along with the AI slop.
“Are you kidding me with the AI music in Olympics figure skating? So you want the world to respect your art but don’t give a shit about the art of music that helps you do it?” one sound engineer wrote on Bluesky.
Another user was more blunt, writing: “‘Figure skating music made by AI’ immediate skip, get fucked.”
While the Olympics are supposed to highlight athletic achievement, it seems like the focus has become more and more on intellectual property issues, even if it has nothing to do with AI. Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate was initially told that he wouldn’t be able to use music from the Minions franchise, but that changed at the last minute. The rights-clearing process is apparently quite complicated, and a change of song can be frustrating for skaters who try to synchronize their movements to line up with the music.
U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn also ran into copyright issues this year. Canadian artist Seb McKinnon, who makes music under the name CLANN, complained on social media that McKinnon didn’t authorize the use of her song in Glenn’s performance, according to the Associated Press. McKinnon released a statement saying that she was “glad we cleared things up with Seb,” but the AP notes we’re still in the dark about what hiccups may have occurred with clearing the music.
The International Skating Union (ISU) only started allowing music with lyrics in 2014, which opened the door to more contemporary music choices at the Olympics. The ISU works with a company called ClicknClear to get music rights, but it’s a big challenge when you have different rights holders who need to get paid, according to USA Today
Mrazkova and Mrazek received a score of 72.09 for their performance on Monday and ranked 17th.
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