IT seems an unlikely subject for a song, but the Tasmanian Devil features in the winning entry in an “AI” Eurovision-style song contest organised by Dutch public broadcaster VPRO.

Inspired by the recent bushfires, “Beautiful the World” samples koala, kookaburra and Tasmanian Devil calls. It has taken out first place in the international AI Song Contest and was created by a team of Australian music producers, data scientists and academics.

The song uses artificial intelligence algorithms trained on past Eurovision songs and the calls of Australian wildlife to give it a unique Australian sound.

The team, all members of music-tech collective Uncanny Valley, competed against 12 other teams from across Europe for the best new Eurovision-like hit created with the help of artificial intelligence.

The competition was judged by a panel of experts who gave the Australian entry 10/10, while the global voting public gave it 9.8/10, way ahead of the other entries.

“Beautiful the World” used a neural network to train audio sounds of Australian animals to create a synthesiser, which it featured in the track.

“The fact that we were able to use technology to blend in the message of the devastation of the bushfires in Australia early this year, clearly struck a chord,” said Caroline Pegram, producer and strategist at Uncanny Valley.

The AI Song Contest was organised by VPRO, NPO 3FM and NPO Innovation and can be accessed at vprobroadcast.com/titles/ai-songcontest.html