| Artist | Adele (Original) — AI Afro Soul Cover |
| Producer | Fraser T. Smith (Original) — AI Arrangement (Cover) |
| Composer | Adele Adkins, Fraser T. Smith (Original) |
| Lyricist | Adele Adkins, Fraser T. Smith (Original) |
| Music Publisher | XL Recordings / Columbia Records (Original Rights) |
This version of “Set Fire to the Rain” is an AI-generated Afro Soul Fusion cover, uploaded to YouTube on March 12, 2026. The original song was written by Adele Adkins and Fraser T. Smith and released in 2011 on Adele’s Grammy-winning album 21, where it became her third consecutive US number-one single. This cover blends Adele’s emotional vocal style with warm African rhythms and Afro Soul instrumentation — part of a broader viral wave of AI-assisted Afro Soul reworkings of classic Western pop songs that swept TikTok and YouTube in early 2026, following the viral success of similar covers of Stromae’s “Papaoutai” and other global pop catalog tracks.
The AI Afro Soul cover format exploded across TikTok and YouTube in late 2025 and early 2026, driven by the viral success of Papaoutai (Afro Soul) by mikeeysmind and Chill77 — which charted in Austria and beyond. The formula: take a globally recognized pop song with strong emotional weight, rebuild it with warm percussion, organic textures, and Afro Soul instrumentation via AI, and upload to YouTube with TikTok clip support. “Set Fire to the Rain” is a natural candidate given its raw emotional power and 2.2 billion+ Spotify streams on the original, making it instantly recognizable while the new sonic texture drives fresh discovery.
I let it fall, my heart And as it fell, you rose to claim it It was dark and I was over Until you kissed my lips and you saved me My hands, they were strong