Saiko Is Making a Concept Album About a Galaxy. He Says Fame Was Written in the Stars
A couple of years ago, the Spanish reggaetón star Saiko was talking with his friend’s stepdad, Walter, known for his spiritual wisdom and for being in touch with the metaphysical.
“He told me, ‘You have to name a song ‘San Walter,’ and I told him, ‘What are you talking about?’” Saiko, 21, recalls. “He tells me, ‘One day, you’ll understand … When it comes out, I’m going to help everything go well.’”
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At the time, the artist had a few songs that were streaming well, but he was still waiting for his true breakthrough. He went into the studio that day to make a track inspired by Walter’s spiritual practices, and dropped “San Walter” in August 2022; a week later, he dropped a drum-and-bass-infused track called “Polaris.” “And the rest is history,” Saiko says with a giggle.
“Polaris,” named after the Marvel mutant and referencing the Colombian star Feid, became Saiko’s biggest hit to date, with more than 202 million streams on Spotify. It’s made him a powerhouse in Spain and earned him the respect of Feid himself, who has mentored him and brought him on tour in the U.S. last fall.
Saiko thanks Walter for some of that success. “He’s so happy that it happened. He has a lot of love for me and he has photos of me in his house,” he says. “I have never been a person who believes in many things. I simply limit myself to what I see and with what is, but with him, I have lived experiences that I have felt are real.”
Saiko grew up listening to reggaeton legends like Daddy Yankee and Don Omar, and he began his music career by performing at freestyle batallas de gallos, or cockfights. When he started competing and needed a name to go by, his older brother dubbed him “Psycho.” “But they’d pronounce it in Spanish: peh-see-cho,” he explained. “I would be like, “It’s not peh-see-cho. I’m Psycho! I don’t know what the fuck peh-see-cho is.”
The name Saiko stuck, and he’s been making music in the reggaetón-Latin trap space ever since. “Many don’t like when Spaniards make this type of music, but people tell me that I know how to make it,” he says. “I don’t make music in this genre because it’s fashionable. I make what I really like. I’m lucky to be able to do that.”
Since dropping “Polaris” in 2022, he’s racked up collaborations with Omar Montes, Yandel, Justin Quiles, and even tapped Quevedo, Mora, and Feid for a remix of “Polaris” last summer. That recording made him a household name in Europe and a new face of the genre in Latin America as well. His top three songs — he hasn’t released an album yet — already have more than half a billion streams on Spotify.
In Spain, Saiko has also made headlines for being candid about his issues with mental health, which he’s learned to deal with through therapy and by maintaining clear communication with his team.
“There are a lot of people who tell me not to talk about it, and I don’t understand why, because at the end of the day, there are people that deal with the same problems as me,” he says. “I try to not reach my limits. I say, ‘Today, I want the day off because I am feeling sensitive’ and everybody understands and helps me.”
He’s also one of the artists Peso Pluma selected for Rolling Stone’s Future 25. “La neta, he’s so young and has a lot of talent he’ll exploit so well,” Peso says. “He has a lot to give. He has the potential to be one of the greatest musical references.”
When Rolling Stone caught up with Saiko, he was in the middle of the desert recording a music video for a track on Sakura, his not-yet-released debut album. Sakura, a concept record, represents Saiko’s musical galaxy, with each of the songs a different planet. (He brought fans into the galaxy in December with his Saliendo del Planeta, or Leaving the Planet EP, which encapsulated his seamless flow and affinity for mixing reggaetón with electronic sounds à la Rauw Alejandro.)
Some songs dive into Latin trap, others are pure reggaetón. There’s an aggressive one filled with what he calls, “fire lava,” and another that touches on a melancholic side he has yet to explore.
“I didn’t see any logic in releasing an album before when I was a smaller artist,” he says. “I started working on Sakura in 2021. But I wanted to keep the concept for the big album.”
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