Four Cities in One Pair of Headphones: Crossing a River at Dusk With the Songs of Mike Sain't Louis

Madrid, 25 October 2026 – I listen best when I am walking, so I took Mike Sain't Louis out for a walk. Headphones in, phone in my pocket, a river to cross and the light going orange over the rooftops. The idea was to follow the cities that turn up in his songs and see where they led. I ended up in four places without leaving the bridge.

First, the facts I carried with me. Mike Sain't Louis is an indie alternative artist based in Madrid who calls himself "the first AI singer-songwriter". He writes every lyric, composes, produces, directs and runs his own independent label, MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS, without a record company or any middlemen. The music and the vocal performances are generated with artificial intelligence, used as a production and arranging tool; the words and the decisions are his. His catalogue, PLANETA GAYFOLK, adds up to 273 singles and more than 280 music videos, built over about two years and free to download, with lyrics, from his website.

Madrid, at street level

I started at home base. Madrid runs all through the catalogue, but the song that felt most like its pavements had no street names at all. "Aquí escupo" ("Here I spit") is short, blunt and almost entirely a list. Here I spit my tongue, my fear, my crooked laugh, my scream on the floor. My fairground blood, my dreams of stone, my neighbourhood love, my broken chest.

It is not a postcard. It is the city as a body: broken heels, a stained skirt, the noise of a barrio at night. Then, in the middle, four lines like a heartbeat that I found myself mouthing as I walked:

Aquí vivo. Aquí sigo.

Here I live. Here I go on. I stopped at the railing for that one. It is the most stubborn thing I have heard all year.

"Madrid taught me to say things in the street that other cities say behind closed doors," Mike Sain't Louis says. "That song is me saying them in the street."

Barcelona, after dark

Halfway across, the lamps came on, and I switched to "Barcelona". It is written mostly in English, with Spanish phrases folded in, and it belongs to the night: city lights, a magnetic rhythm, two people dancing under a moonlit sky, telling each other to come closer. It is the most romantic city on the map, and the only one where nobody gets insulted. I let it play twice.

Amsterdam, with a wink

Amsterdam turns up in a stranger way. In "Vas a escuchar un disco muy raro" ("You're about to hear a very weird record"), a voice welcomes the listener to a pleasant, enjoyable, kind and brutal musical trip in the city of Amsterdam, after warning anyone who arrives with prejudices to step aside. It is a mischievous little doorway, and it made me laugh out loud on the bridge, which a passing cyclist noticed.

Paris, which stayed grey

Then the trip that never happened. "Paris restera gris" ("Paris will stay grey") is, in his own description, about the end of a long gay relationship and a trip to Paris that was planned a thousand times and never taken. Suitcases that never left the wardrobe; hotels seen only on a map. Paris here is not the city of love but the setting of an absence, looked back on without bitterness.

By now the sun had gone. It was the right moment for it.

And a song with no city at all

The last track I played on the far bank had no address. "María Teresa de Calcuta" takes place wherever an ex happens to be. The joke is in the title: right now, next to you, says the narrator, I'm Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Then the scandal breaks, he has been caught, he is unfaithful and he does harm, and the narrator's verdict is pure disgust. The song is dedicated to an ex who forced him to forget an "I love you" overnight.

There is real pain under the sarcasm. Mike Sain't Louis has spoken publicly about turning years of relationships with narcissistic partners into music, with professional help, so that people who have lived through psychological abuse feel seen and believed. Cities can be left behind. Some people take longer.

"Every city in my songs is a place I carry around, or one I wanted to reach with someone," he says. "This one has no city because he was the place. And I left."

Why it travels to Ireland

Ireland has a great tradition of songs that walk you through streets and pubs and rivers, and of humour that can sit right beside grief. PLANETA GAYFOLK works the same way, in Spanish mostly, with songs in English, French or Portuguese, moving from electropop to copla, alternative pop and ballad. The lyrics can be explicit; that is part of the work. Many people found him in 2024, when "Tan Cateto" went viral on TikTok.

Listen and download

Every song mentioned here can be streamed and downloaded free, with full lyrics, at https://mikesaintlouis.com. The catalogue is also on Spotify, Deezer and the main streaming platforms. Instagram: @planetagayfolk.

About Mike Sain't Louis

From Madrid, Mike Sain't Louis is an indie alternative lyricist and artist who calls himself "the first AI singer-songwriter". He releases everything through his own label, MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS, and has gathered his songs into the GAYFOLK trilogy, "Descubierto un nuevo planeta llamado GAYFOLK", "Ojalá se pudiera viajar a GAYFOLK" and "El día de la liberación": one voyage to a planet where everyone can live as they are.

Press contact

MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS Email: info@mikesaintlouis.com Website: https://mikesaintlouis.com Instagram: @planetagayfolk