‘Spanish Wants Names, English Wants Air’: Mike Sain't Louis on Switching Languages Mid-Line, From Club Anthem ‘Malena’ to the All-Spanish Takedown ‘No quiero otro novio cojín’

Madrid, October 25, 2026 – Canadians know better than most what it is like to live in two languages at once, sometimes within one sentence. Mike Sain't Louis writes that way too. The Madrid-based indie alternative artist, who presents himself as "the first AI singer-songwriter," has released 273 singles and more than 280 music videos over roughly two years under the name PLANETA GAYFOLK. Most are in Spanish; some are entirely in English; others, like the club track "Malena," change language halfway through a line.

He writes every lyric himself and is also composer, music producer, artistic director and CEO of his independent label, MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS. The music and vocal performances are generated with artificial intelligence, a production and arranging tool he directs. We spoke to him about what happens to a song when it crosses a language border.

Syllables and stepping stones

Do you choose the language, or does the song choose it?

Often I know before the first line. Spanish comes fast, in long sentences that want to tell you everything with first and last names. English comes slowly, with empty spaces between the lines, like stones you put down to cross a river.

What changes, technically?

The size of the words. English is full of one-syllable words: pain, truth, door, night. One syllable, one hit. In Spanish most words have two or three syllables, and many of mine have four or five. So in the same bar of music you can fit far more English words than Spanish ones. In English I cut. In Spanish I add.

"Malena": the dance floor is bilingual

"Malena" mixes both constantly. Why?

Because that's how a dance floor sounds. The song is about a woman who walks into the club and owns the room: she's queen of the night, everybody wants a kiss, and the narrator wants to be like her. The chorus says it in Spanish: "Yo quiero ser, ser como Malena Gracia," I want to be like Malena Gracia. Then it flips straight into English.

Is the switching planned?

Line by line, yes. Spanish carries the heat, English carries the beat. Look at "Loca, loca, can't escape your fuego." The rhyme sits on the Spanish word, the push comes from the English. If I wrote the whole thing in one language it would lose that feeling of somebody shouting to a friend over the music.

There's a reading of "Malena" as an answer to people who distrust AI music.

People hear a glossy club track and assume nobody is behind it. But somebody chose to put Malena Gracia's name in an English-speaking club, and somebody decided where each language starts and stops. That's writing. The tool doesn't know who Malena Gracia is to me.

"No quiero otro novio cojín": no subtitles available

Then there's "No quiero otro novio cojín," which stays entirely in Spanish.

That one could never be in English. A "novio cojín" is a cushion boyfriend: decorative, soft, sits on your sofa and does nothing. The song starts with a grey routine, bitter coffee, tasteless work, everything repeating. Then it turns into the breakup. Point one, your age: lie. Point two, your eye colour: lie. Point three, you brag about honesty: lie. And the chorus finishes him off: the one I had ended up at the height of a sock.

A sock?

In Spanish, comparing someone to a sock is devastating. Limp, worn, lost in a drawer. In English it's just laundry. When the joke depends on the whole family of meanings around a word, I stay in Spanish and I don't apologize.

How do English-speaking listeners get it, then?

The lyrics are on my website next to every song. And honestly, rhythm translates. You can hear a list of accusations even if you don't understand the accusations.

Accents and the dictation test

Does the AI handle both languages the same way?

No. Spanish puts its weight on a particular syllable in each word, and if the stress lands in the wrong place the line falls apart. So I listen to every version with the lyrics in front of me, then again without them. I ask myself: could I write this down as dictation? If the punchline gets blurred, I move on to the next version.

What it's really about

Underneath the jokes, many of your songs deal with something heavier.

Yes. With professional help I turn years of relationships with narcissistic partners into music. "No quiero otro novio cojín" is one of those, even if it makes people laugh. I want anyone who has lived through psychological abuse to recognize the pattern, the lies listed one by one, and feel believed. Laughing at the sock is part of getting out.

One word for Canadian listeners?

Two: download it. In both languages.

Listen and download

"Malena," "No quiero otro novio cojín" and the rest of PLANETA GAYFOLK are free to stream and download, with complete lyrics, at https://mikesaintlouis.com. The catalogue is also on Spotify, Deezer and the major platforms. Many listeners discovered the artist in 2024, when "Tan Cateto" went viral on TikTok. Instagram: @planetagayfolk.

About Mike Sain't Louis

Mike Sain't Louis is an indie alternative artist and lyricist from Madrid who describes himself as "the first AI singer-songwriter." Fully independent through his own label, MIKE SAIN'T LOUIS, he writes queer, uncensored, camp songs, mostly in Spanish with others in English, French or Portuguese, moving between electropop, copla, alternative pop and ballad. His GAYFOLK trilogy, "Descubierto un nuevo planeta llamado GAYFOLK," "Ojalá se pudiera viajar a GAYFOLK" and "El día de la liberación," is one journey toward a planet where everyone can live as they are.

Media contact

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