Mindvalley Stories
Case Study · AI Mastery

A birthday song in Julio Iglesias style made a brother laugh across borders

Using Claude, Suno and ChatGPT, they made a brother's 58th birthday song and caricature, now shared with his friends and pinned in his office.

This student has a tradition: every year they give their brother something unusual that nobody else would think of. For his 58th birthday, they used AI tools to write and produce his very own song and artwork. It is a small, fast project with a big heart, and it shows how new skills can turn love and inside jokes into something people keep.

Aurora Villarroel
A sibling living abroad who always gives their brother an unusual birthday gift.
Personalized birthday song and caricature

Before

Their brother lives in Spain, and every year they look for a gift nobody else thinks about. This year they wanted something that captured him exactly: the boy who always wanted to be a pilot, the sweet tooth, the self-crowned king of the home village. They knew the style he loves most, the Julio Iglesias sound of the 70s and 80s.

“It was his 58th birthday and I always gift him something unusual that nobody else thinks about.”

In their own words

The turning point

They asked Claude to write lyrics around those specific details, modelled on "Soy un Truhan, Soy un Señor", and only had to make two minor corrections. After about six iterations in Suno, they loved the beginning of one version and the middle and end of another, so they asked Claude how to splice them and did it themselves. Then they turned a photo of their brother in his work vest into a ChatGPT caricature at the airport, cone in hand and a 58 cake beside him.

“I had it stuck in my brain for over a week playing on constant replay.”

In their own words

After

They watched their brother listen live over Signal from Spain, and he was so happy he asked for the song in another format to share with his girlfriend, friends and co-workers. The caricature now hangs in his shared office. The song stuck in its maker's head for over a week.

What it lets people do

The project shows how anyone can combine AI tools to make a deeply personal gift: lyrics full of family jokes, a song in a beloved style, and artwork that actually looks like the person. It turns memories and quirks into something that can be played, shared and kept.

What they learned

Small, quick projects can land the hardest when they are built from specific, loving details. They also learned to treat AI tools as collaborators, mixing the best parts of several attempts until the result felt right.

“He loved it so much he has posted it in his shared office.”

In their own words

See the work

Birthday caricature: the brother at the airport with cone and cake

Personalized birthday song and caricature was built during AI Mastery.

Read the full submission
This is a very small project that was done very fast but that made quite an impression on the intended person. That was my brother. It was his 58th birthday and I always gift him something unusual that nobody else thinks about. This year that was his own song, made with Suno in the style that he loves the most, very similar to Julio Iglesias and touching on very specific things that are so him. Anybody who has listened to the song just rolls over laughing, including him. I got to watch him live via signal while he was listening to the song (he lives in Spain). He was so happy with his song and the artwork for his song that he asked me to forward it to him in a different format so that he could share it with his girlfriend, his friends, and his co-workers. It has been an absolute hit. I know the song is in Spanish and it is very specific to him. It is written in a language that is very much Julio Iglesias, in his 70s or 80s, which makes it that much funnier but I'm attaching it anyway. I had it stuck in my brain for over a week playing on constant replay. That's how good it is.  I asked Claude AI to create the lyrics emphasizing a few very specific things about my brother, like: - the fact that he always wanted to be a pilot - that he has a very, very sweet tooth - does not drink alcohol - he has beens losing his hair for many years  - he is pretty much retired given that he works for the government and doesn't do a lot - he loves to go back to our home village when nobody else wants to go there anymore so he is the king of the village  I emphasized to Claude that this song would be in the style of Julio Iglesias, of a specific song called "Soy un Truhan, Soy un Señor", which is a very famous song in Spain, and it was almost perfect. I only had to make two minor corrections, then I sent the lyrics to Suno with the prompt created by Claude. Within, I think it was six iterations, I had the song. It was actually interesting, that from the last two iterations, I loved the beginning of one of them but the middle and the end of the other one. I asked Claude how I could splice them together and it gave me the instructions in Suno. I just edited both songs together in Suno, spliced them together, and that's the final song.  Then I took a picture of my brother from one of my last visits to Spain in his working truck with his working vest. I asked ChatGPT to make a caricature of him at the airport with a cargo airplane in the background, with my brother holding the traffic cone (he is an airtraffic marshaller) and a birthday cake with lit candles that say 58. It is absolutely epic. It actually looks like my brother. He loved it so much he has posted it in his shared office. He does not have any pictures of him anywhere! :-)

Written 10 August 2026 Submitted by the storyteller

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