Reino Unido ·
Fifty-One Lines, Nineteen Sentences, One Harpy: Eight Things to Notice in Mike Sain't Louis's 'La empatía de la arpía'
The Madrid-based indie alternative artist who calls himself 'the first AI singer-songwriter' puts his own lyric under the magnifying glass – and shows how a short song can map abuse that dresses itself up as kindness
Madrid, 25 October 2026 – Some songs begin in the middle of things. Others begin like the bedtime stories we were read as children, with a formula that warns you a tale is coming. 'La empatía de la arpía' ('The Harpy's Empathy') belongs to the second group, with a catch: its opening formula comes back eight times, and each time it opens a different door in the same house.
Mike Sain't Louis – the Madrid-based indie alternative artist who presents himself as 'the first AI singer-songwriter' – has just taken his own lyric apart on his blog, line by line. He writes every word of his songs; the music and the vocal performance are produced with artificial intelligence. Over roughly two years, his project PLANETA GAYFOLK has released 273 singles and more than 280 music videos, all free to stream and download, lyrics included, at mikesaintlouis.com.
After an earlier post on the video's beach wedding, this time he reached for the magnifying glass. Here is what it turns up.
1. The numbers tell you how it's built
The lyric runs to fifty-one lines, but only nineteen of them are different, and it adds up to roughly two hundred and forty words. The opening formula appears eight times, and so does the harpy's name. A short song, then, but a dense one: most of its length is repetition, and the repetition is the point.
2. Two halves: first you tell it, then you circle it
The song splits into two very different blocks. The first is a run of eight vignettes, each opened by the same words. The second is a hypnotic coda in which nothing new is told: a long murmur and a line about crying alternate, again eight times, until the track fades. Mike sees this as the exact order in which such a relationship is lived once you finally look at it from outside. First you try to understand what happened. Then all that's left is the echo.
3. 'Esta es la historia' – this, not a
Every vignette begins 'Esta es la historia' – 'This is the story'. The demonstrative matters. Not 'a story', not 'the same old story', but this one, the one in front of you. It is a pointing finger that makes the listener look. It is also, Mike notes, the formula of a witness: the way a statement begins when someone has seen something and needs it on the record. Repeated eight times, it turns the song into a kind of official minutes. Each return says, in effect: write this down, this happened too.
4. A rhyme that gives the game away
The second line of each vignette is the title, and with it the first great rhyme: 'empatía' and 'arpía'. The two words sound almost identical – same ending, a 'p' at the centre, a near-matching stress – so that together they become a tongue-twister. That is what makes them unsettling. Empathy, which ought to be the opposite of a harpy, sounds just like one.
5. A harpy who is a man
In mythology the harpy is half woman, half bird, a creature that snatches and fouls. In everyday Spanish it survives as an insult. But in this song, as a pronoun later makes clear, the character is a man. 'Using that word for him is very much a thing on my planet,' Mike writes, 'where the gender of insults gets mixed up and taken back. It doesn't matter who wears the word. What matters is what he does.'
6. Years don't count; betrayals do
The first story is about time. Two decades, three, four – the figure inflates and is then waved away with 'Eso da igual' ('That doesn't matter'). What matters is how many betrayals fit inside: a few, or thousands. A relationship is not measured by how long it lasted, but by what was betrayed within it. Here, too, the song finds its second pillar: the rhyme between 'años' (years) and 'engaños' (deceptions). From then on, whenever a word ending in '-años' turns up, you know a blow is coming – as if every anniversary carried its own hidden lie.
7. 'And even so' – the birthday problem
The second vignette is the longest and most narrative. It opens with a scene: 'Y aún así' – 'and even so' – the harpy celebrates your birthday with you. Those three small words do all the work. After the deceptions there are still candles, a present, a photo. Mike calls it the double life of abuse: normality stays standing, and that is precisely why it is so hard to see what lies underneath.
8. A song for people who were not believed
Mike has spoken openly about why songs like this exist. With professional help, he turns years of relationships with narcissistic partners into music, to make narcissistic and psychological abuse visible – along with the marks it leaves on mental health – and so that people living through it feel seen and believed. 'La empatía de la arpía' does it by the most patient method available: telling the same story eight times until nobody can say it didn't happen.
Why it lands in Britain
British listeners know how to read a lyric closely. Mike's lyrics are in Spanish, but each one is published in full on his website, so anyone can sit with a translation and follow the structure he describes. The eight-fold formula is easy to hear even if you don't speak a word of the language: listen for the return, and count.
Where to listen and download
'La empatía de la arpía' and all 273 singles can be streamed and downloaded free of charge, with lyrics, at https://mikesaintlouis.com. The music is also on Spotify, Deezer and the main streaming platforms. The full verse-by-verse essay is on his blog.
About Mike Sain't Louis
Mike Sain't Louis is an indie alternative artist based in Madrid who describes himself as 'the first AI singer-songwriter'. Lyricist, composer, music producer, art director and head of his own independent label, MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS, he works without a record company or middlemen. His GAYFOLK trilogy – 'Descubierto un nuevo planeta llamado GAYFOLK', 'Ojalá se pudiera viajar a GAYFOLK' and 'El día de la liberación' – imagines a journey to a planet where everyone can live as they are. In 2024 'Tan Cateto' went viral on TikTok.
Press contact
Email: info@mikesaintlouis.com Website: https://mikesaintlouis.com Instagram: @planetagayfolk