O Menino e a Cidade is a poetic night-time stroll through a sleeping city. As each streetlight blinks out, Carminho introduces a wide-eyed boy who refuses to sleep because his dreams are far too alive. He wonders whose hands he will one day kiss and why the clock seems to steal entire days, while his mother quietly cries so she does not disturb the silent streets. The city feels enormous, yet the song wraps it in a lullaby of soft fado guitars and a comforting refrain: "Não tenhas medo" – "Don’t be afraid."
In the chorus Carminho turns the boy’s private questions into a universal message: time rushes by, loneliness can feel huge, but courage and imagination are always bigger. By the final verses the boy has “grown on the inside,” tasted first love, and learned that life only burns if our dreams are too small. The song celebrates every listener’s inner child who keeps looking up at the night sky, certain that even in darkness we are meant to dream together rather than cry alone.