The widowed Erika Kirk warned that the death of her husband would be heard around the world, and while there's no denying the divisive nature of Charlie Kirk's viewpoints, his wife was right that his voice is one that's still being bellowed posthumously.
Charlie Kirk was shot dead when discussing gun violence at Utah Valley University, with Tyler Robinson currently standing trial and accused of his murder. In the aftermath, Kirk was awarded the Medal of Freedom, there have been swirling conspiracy theories, and Erika Kirk has remained on the media circuit while continuing the legacy of her husband's Turning Point USA mission.
Like the website that popped up and took your cash to 'expose' those who were mocking Kirk's murder, it seems others are making money from his passing.
If you've opened up TikTok recently, you'll undoubtedly have heard the "We Are Charlie Kirk" song.
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With lyrics that include, "The world tried to silence, but his voice remains. In us it echoes, in Christ it sustains," it's a patriotic ditty that's being used on thousands of videos. Our ‘For You’ pages have been overtaken by the song, and apparently, so have the Spotify charts.
As reported by Forbes, the song was released on September 16, just days after Kirk's assassination. If you're questioning how the writers could come up with such lyrical genius in such a short space of time, the streaming platform Deezer has flagged "We Are Charlie Kirk" as AI-generated. Other releases by the artist known as Spalexma are also listed under 'AI-generated content'.
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At the time of writing, "We Are Charlie Kirk" has been featured on 59.6K TikTok videos.
The song seemed to take off when TikTok user cp_alo shared the audio and called it "genuinely the worst f**king song I've ever heard in my life bro" in a video that's been viewed eight million times.
This controversy has propelled "We Are Charlie Kirk" to the top of the Spotify charts, where it currently sits in first place on the 'Viral 50 - Global' playlist that has 1.8 million saves and regularly updates with songs that are climbing the ranks of Spotify's viral chart.
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Like when people were manipulating videos of that hug between Erika Kirk and JD Vance, the internet is full of some wild content that appears to depict several famous faces shedding a tear for him.
It's part of a more worrying trend, and after Scarlett Johansson called out ChatGPT amid accusations it used her voice, AI Charlie Kirk tributes sung by the likes of Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Taylor Swift have appeared online. There's also an AI version of Vice President JD Vance singing "We Are Charlie Kirk" to a mourning crowd.
With some seemingly unable to distinguish what's real from what's fake, YouTube is inundated with videos where Celine Dion is delivering a tribute to the controversial commentator.
Although YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon confirmed that several of these AI channels have been pulled, a quick search shows there are still plenty of them out there. Posting under a video of a crying AI Celine Dion, one person wrote: "Thank you Celine, for your music, thank you for paying tribute to Charlie."
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Spalexma's Spotify page includes an impressive catalog of faith-inspired songs and some AI-looking cover art. Still, "We Are Charlie Kirk" is undeniably its biggest hit. While critics continue to call the lyrics 'cursed', this is one song that doesn't look like it's going anywhere.