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“First time in San Juan, mi hijo.” If you spend any time on TikTok, chances are you’re not just reading those words, you’re singing them. They’ll also probably be stuck in your head for the next three hours, paired with visions of people dancing in bright Hawaiian shirts.
For the uninitiated, those lyrics kick off The Puerto Rico Song, one of the catchiest earworms to recently bless/curse the internet.
The infectious, breezy pop track simply recounts a joyous trip to, you guessed it, Puerto Rico. Yet it has taken social media by storm, being used in well over 46,000 TikTok posts and racking up more than 15 million streams on Spotify. The original video, shared on TikTok by the track’s creator Bill Stiteler (aka Saxboy Billy), has more than 6.3 million views and it has been used by celebrities such as Charlie Puth, Luke Combs, Sarah Hyland and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Even the official tourism board of Puerto Rico has joined the party, licensing the track for its summer advertising campaign, including an official music video.
But before you get too excited about this wholesome underdog success story, there’s something you should know: The Puerto Rico Song was AI-generated.
So, how exactly did this AI song come about, how did it take off online, and what could it mean for both the music and creator economy?
What on earth is this song?
It all technically began with the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team in the US. Stiteler, a content creator from Pittsburgh, was already creating videos about his “beloved sports team” while following them on the road in 2024. He realised viewers were more interested in his travel clips, so he turned to music AI platform Suno to produce “easily digestible and funny travel content”.
He did this for about two years but it wasn’t until The Puerto Rico Song dropped in April that things turned.
“The lyrics legit just came from me looking back at my notes and footage of my trip to Puerto Rico. [I had] zero idea that this one would do as well as it did. Zero. How could anyone have seen this [coming]? This is insanity,” Stiteler told this masthead.
The lyrics simply paint a picture of someone’s first time in the country: visitors clapping on the plane upon landing, taking a bus to Caguas, and so on. It’s upbeat, catchy and non-controversial, yet it intrigued TikTok audiences so much that Stiteler decided to leverage Spotify for the first time.
How did it take off?
Before Stiteler knew it, the song was everywhere. Common users and celebrities alike were singing or lip-syncing to it on TikTok, while others were choreographing dances to it. Despite attracting musicians like Charlie Puth, Stiteler was most excited when boy band O-Town jumped on the bandwagon.
“As a 37-year-old man, O-Town is really the one that took my breath away, that is millennial-core,” he says. “But the best has really been seeing a roller-rink in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or a public library in Hoover, Alabama, use the song and get some shine from it.”
Why this particular song took off remains a mystery, he says. His best guess is that it shows how wonderful his time in Puerto Rico was, as opposed to his videos about mainland American cities, which he tends to “lambast” more. People appear to have been drawn to the sheer unfiltered positivity of the Puerto Rico tune, especially amid the grim real-life news cycle.
This isn’t unheard of. Clips of Abcdfu helped propel a then-17-year-old Gayle into the limelight, even landing her a deal with Atlantic Records. Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road also garnered most of its success from TikTok. Basically anything with a solid hook that’s catchy and repetitive tends to do well on the algorithm because it makes it reusable as a soundbite, says Dr Brittany Ferdinands, a lecturer in digital content creation at the University of Sydney.
“Users don’t simply consume it; they build content around it,” she says. Once it appears on a platform, every additional use then becomes a “recommendation signal” that increases its likelihood of being surfaced to new audiences.
Should the AI element concern us?
Are we entering an era where the barrier to creating a hit song has been entirely erased? Does “talent” now reside in prompt creation rather than creative execution? These are ongoing concerns of AI sceptics.
However, Ferdinands doesn’t see this track’s virality as major cause for concern. While AI has lowered the technical barriers to producing music, she says it has not eliminated the challenge of attracting attention.
“If anything, as content production becomes easier, visibility becomes more competitive. What we’re seeing is a shift in where creative labour occurs. Technical execution remains valuable but creators are increasingly rewarded for recognising cultural moments, understanding platform dynamics and producing content that algorithms can easily categorise and recommend.”
Prompting is part of that process, she says, but so, too, are packaging, timing, storytelling and distribution. “I don’t think this means talent has disappeared. Rather, our understanding of creative expertise is expanding.”
Stiteler has also been incredibly open about his use of AI, even stating that he doesn’t claim the song to be “proper” music.
“I write the lyrics to the songs to accompany the B-roll of my trips to places … The Puerto Rico Song was the first one I ever put on Spotify because the demand was insane but they’re not made for music exclusively. They’re made to be a comedy video,” he says.
Intention matters, says Dr Rachel Faleatua, media and communication lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington.
“This highlights the desire audiences have for authenticity on the part of the producer. In many ways, being so transparent about the process has really helped the song become more popular. The openness around using AI is perhaps a refreshing change for audiences,” she says.
Ferdinands agrees, noting that viewers increasingly favour content that is playful and “self-aware”. By admitting The Puerto Rico Song is AI-generated and “just a bit of fun”, those on the internet see an opportunity to participate in a global joke.
What could this mean for the music industry?
Stiteler has since put his entire catalogue on Suno, including his prompts. “Someone said it’s like sheet music, which was funny. My prompt [for The Puerto Rico Song] was: ’80s theme song. Not exactly rocket science.”
Ferdinands doesn’t think music studios will desperately seek out these kinds of prompts over actual creative output, such as human-written lyrics. Firstly, the same prompt used twice may not trigger the same viral product. Secondly, the prompt itself isn’t necessarily valuable, rather it’s the creator’s “ability to recognise and capitalise on a particular cultural moment”.
Steps are also being taken to ensure greater transparency around AI in music. Major music industry groups like the Grammys and the Recording Industry Association of America recently suggested a new labelling program that would indicate whether a song has been produced with AI, similar to the “explicit” tags on songs.
And in September, Spotify announced it was helping to develop the new industry standard for AI disclosures in music credits. This would prevent the deception some listeners feel when music is later revealed to be AI-generated, such as with The Velvet Sundown last year.
As for Stiteler himself, Faleatua says his trajectory depends on how he’s able to build on the attention he’s already received.
“Generally speaking, trying to remain famous by repeating the same process has not gone well for many overnight sensations. It will be all about capitalising on the opportunities and attention in the moment.”
Stiteler seems to already be capitalising on this, however. He’s currently in Denmark and is set to bring The Puerto Rico Song to Australia and New Zealand in September. “Ultimately, I’d love to make a travel show where I show off lesser-visited cities, then make a song with a band from that town,” he says. “I think that will be excellent.”
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