Xania Monet is the first AI-powered artist to debut on a Billboard airplay chart, but she likely won’t be the last

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Artificial intelligence is everywhere and the music charts are no different.

According to Billboard, an AI singer named Xania Monet is “the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a Billboard radio chart.”

So far, Monet has appeared on multiple Billboard charts since first releasing a song in summer 2025, including the Hot Gospel Songs (for her song “Let Go, Let God”) and the Hot R&B Songs chart (for her song “How Was I Supposed to Know”), according to the publication.

Now, she’s been signed to a multimillion-dollar record deal with Hallwood Media after what Billboard called “a bidding war.”

Hollywood has long been worried about the ramifications of AI performers taking work from humans. (See the recent controversy over AI actress Tilly Norwood.) But as loud as the concerns might be, AI continues to grow in the arts.

With more than 146,000 followers on Instagram alone, Monet is proof that consumers are increasingly open to the idea, even if the industry is riled by it.

Monet’s Apple Music artist profile explains that Monet is “an Al figure presented as a contemporary R&B vocalist in the highly expressive, church-bred, down-to-earth vein of Keyshia Cole, K. Michelle, and Muni Long.”

Monet was designed by Telisha Nikki Jones, a poet from Mississippi who writes the lyrics Monet is seen performing with help from Suno, “a generative artificial intelligence music creation program,” the bio explains.

Monet released a full-length album “Unfolded” in August, which had 24 songs. A seven-track EP, “Pieces Left Behind,” followed in September.

A press release from Monet’s representative touted the AI singer’s “smooth, soulful sound” and “human-like delivery.” But Romel Murphy, who says he’s Monet’s manager and spoke with CNN’s Victor Blackwell, insisted that there is no intent to replace human singers and songwriters.

“AI doesn’t replace the artist. That’s not our goal at all. It doesn’t diminish the creativity and doesn’t take away from the human experience,” he said. “It’s a new frontier and like anything would change some people are receptive and some people are apprehensive.”

Billboard recently reported that “in just the past few months, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard rankings.”

“That figure could be higher, as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent,” according to the publication. “Many of these charting projects, whose music spans every genre from gospel to rock to country, also arrive with anonymous or mysterious origins.”

Murphy doesn’t appear to see an issue and likens it all to the music of Michael Jackson and Prince, who died in 2009 and 2016 respectively.

“They both have music catalogs that are expanding decades to this day. Youth are still listening to those songs and they’re no longer with us and they’re connected to their music,” Murphy said. “So it is the music because they don’t have the history of the contact or the concert live field, but they still love those songs. Music has to evolve as well.”

“We just have to keep the integrity and be intentional about the realness of it and push the music to the world,” he added.

CNN has reached out to Monet’s representative for comment.

Meanwhile, working musicians are – as expected– troubled.

“There is an AI R&B artist who just signed a multimillion-dollar deal … and the person is doing none of the work,” Kehlani said of Monet in a now-deleted video posted to TikTok. “This is so beyond out of our control.”

The human singer added: “Nothing and no one on Earth will ever be able to justify AI to me.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.