Bette Midler and Tyrese Gibson Clash Over AI-Generated Hit ‘Celebrate Me’ as Music Industry Debate Intensifies

Bette Midler; Tyrese Gibson.

Bette Midler and Tyrese Gibson have found themselves on opposite sides of one of the music industry’s most controversial debates: the growing influence of artificial intelligence in songwriting and performance.

The disagreement erupted after Midler publicly condemned the AI-assisted song “Celebrate Me” by IngaRose, a track that has gained significant traction online and climbed the iTunes charts after being created with the artificial intelligence music platform Suno.

Midler, 80, shared a strongly worded Instagram post criticizing the song and the technology behind it, arguing that AI-generated music threatens the work, creativity and cultural contributions of human artists.

Gibson, 47, however, responded directly in the comments and defended the song, arguing that its emotional impact matters more than whether it was created with artificial intelligence.

Their exchange quickly became a broader discussion about originality, compensation, authorship and the future of musicians in an increasingly AI-driven entertainment landscape.

Bette Midler Calls the Song “Cultural Genocide”

Midler shared “Celebrate Me” as the featured audio on an Instagram post while drawing attention to its artificial intelligence origins.

“This song, currently on the charts, is AI generated,” the Hocus Pocus star wrote.

Interestingly, Midler did not dismiss the song itself as poor music. In fact, she acknowledged that the track was effective.

“It’s a good song,” she wrote.

Her objection centered instead on how artificial intelligence systems are trained and the degree to which they may reproduce musical characteristics developed by human performers over decades.

Midler argued that the machine responsible for creating the song had absorbed creative elements from countless musicians without properly compensating them.

She described those elements as including riffs, vocal phrasing, emotional expression and recognizable stylistic techniques developed by singers throughout recorded music history.

According to Midler, AI-generated music can effectively imitate generations of artistic work while providing no financial benefit to the musicians whose recordings may have contributed to the systems used to produce it.

She concluded her message with an especially severe characterization of the trend.

“This is #culturalgenocide,” Midler wrote.

Her post immediately attracted attention from fellow artists and fans who share concerns about the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence into creative industries.

Tyrese Gibson Defends the AI Song

Gibson had a dramatically different reaction.

The Fast Five actor and R&B singer responded in Midler’s comment section with a lengthy defense of “Celebrate Me.”

Rather than focusing on the technology used to produce the track, Gibson emphasized the response it has received from listeners.

“Ai isn’t going anywhere….” he wrote.

He suggested that continued criticism of artificial intelligence could ironically make AI-generated music even more popular.

“Complain complain and it just makes it more popular,” Gibson wrote before adding, “This song is actually a great song.”

Gibson openly acknowledged that he knew artificial intelligence had been involved in producing the track.

“I know it’s Ai,” he wrote.

For him, however, that did not appear to diminish the song’s value.

Instead, Gibson argued that music should ultimately be judged by whether it connects emotionally with listeners.

He pointed to the number of people struggling with difficult circumstances, including depression, divorce and discouragement, and said that “Celebrate Me” offered them something meaningful.

“This song has inspired even ME!!!!!!” Gibson wrote.

He then referenced singer Andra Day, saying the last song from a human artist that had similarly inspired him and felt “on message” had come from her.

Bette Midler in New York City on June 2, 2025.

“What HUMAN Writer and Singer Is Gonna Write a Song Better Than This?”

Gibson’s most provocative remarks came when he directly challenged human songwriters and singers to compete with the quality of the AI-generated track.

“What HUMAN writer and SINGER IS gonna write a song that’s better than this??” he asked.

Rather than demanding restrictions on artificial intelligence, Gibson suggested that musicians should respond by improving their own work.

“Don’t complain…. Just step your shhhhhhhh up….” he wrote.

He ended his message by emphasizing what he believes listeners currently need most.

“The world needs HOPE…..”

His response highlights one of the central arguments made by supporters of AI-assisted creativity: that audiences may care less about the technical process behind a song than about whether the final product moves them emotionally.

Midler’s position represents the opposite concern — that separating music from the human labor and artistic history behind it could fundamentally damage creative culture.

Other Artists Support Midler

Several notable performers joined the discussion and appeared to side with Midler.

Singer Natasha Bedingfield raised concerns that the song seemed to resemble the vocal characteristics of British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean.

Bedingfield wrote that it sounded as though “a lot of” Dean’s voice may have been used in producing the track.

“So wrong,” she added.

Grammy-winning singer India Arie also reacted with surprise that an AI-assisted song had achieved significant chart success.

“its on the CHARTS😮 ugh,” she wrote.

Actress and comedian Amy Sedaris offered an even shorter reaction.

“Yuck,” she commented.

Their responses demonstrate the level of anxiety surrounding AI-generated music among artists whose careers depend on distinctive voices, performance styles and songwriting identities.

Who Is IngaRose?

Despite the controversy, IngaRose has already built a substantial streaming audience.

The artist has more than 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, while “Celebrate Me” has accumulated more than 23 million streams on the platform.

The project’s social media presence also disputes the idea that everything connected to IngaRose is purely machine-generated.

The IngaRose Instagram account describes the music as involving “Human written lyrics” and “Real stories,” while stating that stems and arrangements are refined using Suno.

The account also contains numerous AI-generated images, reinforcing the project’s connection to artificial intelligence tools.

A Spotify biography provides a similar explanation.

According to the profile, Ingrid — the person behind the IngaRose project — is a songwriter and human creator whose music is based on personal experiences and emotions.

The biography states that she uses Suno as a creative tool to help transform her original songs into finished musical productions.

It describes IngaRose as a neo-soul storyteller whose songs explore themes such as heartbreak, faith, healing and personal development.

That distinction complicates the debate.

Rather than describing IngaRose as a completely autonomous AI performer, the project presents itself as a collaboration between a human songwriter and artificial intelligence technology.

Suno and the Growing AI Music Debate

Suno is one of several AI platforms capable of generating complete songs from written instructions.

Users can provide descriptions of genres, moods, lyrics or musical ideas, and the technology can produce vocals, instrumentation and arrangements.

The technology has rapidly advanced, making it increasingly difficult for casual listeners to immediately distinguish some AI-generated tracks from traditionally recorded music.

That progress has created significant tension throughout the music industry.

Musicians and rights organizations have raised questions about how AI companies obtain the enormous datasets necessary to train generative models.

The central issue is whether copyrighted recordings, vocal performances and compositions have been used without authorization or compensation.

Artists are particularly concerned about systems capable of producing songs that appear to imitate recognizable voices or styles.

Supporters of AI tools, meanwhile, argue that artificial intelligence can function similarly to other technologies that have transformed music production in the past.

From synthesizers and sampling to Auto-Tune and digital audio workstations, new technologies have repeatedly changed the way music is created.

The key disagreement is whether generative AI is simply another creative instrument or something fundamentally different because of the enormous amount of existing human-created material required to train it.

Tyrese Gibson in Los Angeles on Aug. 17, 2026.

The Success of “Celebrate Me” Raises Bigger Questions

The popularity of “Celebrate Me” makes the dispute particularly significant.

AI-generated or AI-assisted songs are no longer experimental curiosities circulating in obscure online communities.

They are now capable of reaching mainstream streaming audiences, appearing on charts and accumulating millions of plays.

That reality makes Midler and Gibson’s disagreement representative of a much larger conflict.

Midler’s position centers on protection — protecting human artists, intellectual property and the cultural value of work created through genuine human experience.

Gibson’s argument centers on impact — if listeners feel inspired, encouraged or emotionally connected to a song, he believes the technology behind it may ultimately matter less.

Entertainment Weekly reported that it contacted representatives for Midler, Gibson and Suno for additional comment. The outlet also reached out to the IngaRose Instagram account.

For now, the debate remains unresolved.

But with “Celebrate Me” surpassing 23 million Spotify streams and attracting attention from major entertainers, one thing is increasingly clear: AI-generated music is no longer a hypothetical challenge facing the entertainment industry.

It is already competing for the same charts, streams and listeners as human musicians — and artists are sharply divided over what should happen next.