Self-taught songwriter lands two songs in UK Songwriting Contest final and wins 'Best Song' at Cannes

Self-taught songwriter and leader in the field of AI, Matthew Blakemore has landed two songs in the final of the UK Songwriting Contest, one of the world's longest-running international songwriting competitions, and won Best Song at the Cannes World Film Festival, all in the same year.

Blakemore's tracks Paper Cuts (Adult Contemporary) and Absence of Care (Singer-Songwriter) both reached the final of the 2025 UK Songwriting Contest (UKSC), now in its 24th year with entries from almost 100 countries. Finalists represent the top 1–2% of all entries. 

Two songs in the final from the same writer is a rare achievement. A third song, Why Say Sorry?, won the Best Song award at the Cannes World Film Festival.

Three songs. Three competitions. Two finals and a win.

Blakemore is entirely self-taught as a songwriter, he has never had a songwriting or music lesson outside of school, and has perfected his craft entirely on his own since the age of 16. 

He started writing songs as a teenager at John Henry Newman School in Stevenage, where music teacher Mr Wright selected one of his early compositions to be performed by the school choir. 

He went on to write songs for the charity Teens Unite Fighting Cancer and has received UKSC recognition across multiple years.

"When I was developing my craft, people used to laugh," says Blakemore. "They aren't laughing now."

By day, Blakemore is one of the UK's most prominent AI professionals. He is CEO of AI Caramba!, named AI Solutions Provider of the Year 2025, and serves as European Regional Director at Monarrch, known as 'The AI Royalty Company'. He was named in the Top 100 Influential People in AI (2025), awarded Forty Under 40 UK (2024), and is one of only four global Sub-Editors for ISO/IEC 8183, an international AI standard affecting 165+ countries.

Yet he never uses AI to write his lyrics. Not a single word.

"Every lyric comes from lived experience, the heartbreak, the joy, the frustration. That has to be human," says Blakemore. "What AI can do is help me realise the sound I hear in my head. I use it as a production tool to shape the music around my words, exactly as I envision it. That's empowerment, not replacement."

Blakemore uses AI music tools to iteratively shape and edit productions until they match his precise creative vision, a process far removed from the common misconception of simply typing a prompt and accepting whatever comes out.

His role at Monarrch places him at the centre of one of the biggest debates in the music industry right now: whether AI companies should compensate creators whose work is used to train AI models. Monarrch is developing a patent-pending AI Royalty Operating System (AIR-OS), designed to ensure fair remuneration for creators.

"I'm on the side of the creators," says Blakemore. "Not by blocking AI, but by making sure the people whose creativity feeds these models get their fair share."

This advocacy sits alongside his contributions to the EU AI Office's General-Purpose AI Code of Practice and his standards work through ISO/IEC and BSI, where he helps shape the governance frameworks that will determine how AI interacts with creative industries globally.

aicaramba.co.uk

London-based film company MSC has formally labelled its films as “No AI Used” at this year's EFM

Expanding on A24s initiative on Heretic a British Film Company MSC has publicly certified it’s films as “No AI Used,” adds to calls for Global Standard at EFM.

A London-based film company MSC has formally label its films as “No AI Used” at this years EFM, launching a new initiative that challenges the film industry to draw a clear line between human authorship and machine-generated content.

At this year’s European Film Market in Berlin, The Mise En Scene Company (MSC) unveiled the label across its entire market slate marking the first time any sales company, distributor, or studio has publicly certified that AI was not used at any stage of development or production.

The initiative is being launched in one of the most visible locations at the market: two large billboards in Potsdamer Platz advertising MSC’s lead titles, Forelock (starring David Krumholtz) and Billy Knight (starring Al Pacino & Charlie Heaton). Both prominently display the “No AI Used” label.

According to MSC, the goal is not to oppose technology, but to protect human authorship as a cultural and economic category at a moment when AI-generated content is flooding creative industries.

“We’re entering a tectonic shift,” the company’s CEO Paul Yates told That's Books and More. 

“Human artistry is about to become more valuable and more vulnerable than ever. If we don’t define it, label it, and protect it, it will simply disappear into the noise.”

The company says the initiative was inspired by UK filmmaker and digital rights advocate Baroness Beeban Kidron, as well as the Human Artistry ‘Stealing Isn’t Innovation’ campaign, both of which have criticised government approaches to copyright and AI training.

MSC is now calling on all film companies, festivals, and governments to work toward a centralised, internationally recognised certification system for human-made cultural works, similar to organic food or fair-trade labelling, so audiences can know when what they are watching was made without generative AI.

“The dominant AI narrative is about speed and cost, half the time, half the price,” the CEO said. “That logic turns art into churn. Film has to define itself as the opposite of that, or it loses its soul and its economic power.”

However, the company makes it clear that it is not anti-AI.

“We support AI as a tool,” the CEO added. “But we believe it’s essential to clearly distinguish AI-generated material from human expression. 

"Without clear labelling and standards, we risk being overwhelmed by a flood of synthetic culture. A24 was right to add it into the credits but we believe we need to take this idea further.”

Dr Alessandro Spano, Legal Expert in Ciber Law, AI and Innovation, King’s College London & CityUHK commented on the move stating: “The relationship between human intelligence and artifical intelligence in the creative industries reminds me of the Schrödinger's cat story. It really is a paradox. Is the cat dead or alive? It is both. It is a measurement problem.

Is human intelligence in the creative sector dead or alive? It is both. It is another paradox. It is another measurement problem. With the 'No AI Used' initiative, Paul Yates’ The Mise en Scène Company is pioneering this debate.”

MSC has begun discussions with other international partners about expanding the label beyond film into publishing, music, and visual art.

www.miseenscenecompany.com