Kali Uchis

The wide stylistic palette of left-field pop artist Kali Uchis shows through her far-reaching list of collaborators, spanning Tyler, The Creator, Gorillaz, Daniel Caesar, Juanes, and BadBadNotGood. Serving as singer, songwriter, producer, and video director, Uchis established her independent footing via the self-released EP Por Vida in 2015, which secured a contract with Virgin EMI. Her energetic first full-length album, Isolation, arrived in 2018 and reached the upper tier of the Billboard R&B/hip-hop chart at number five, yet she had already earned Grammy nominations for her guest spots on Daniel Caesar’s “Get You” and Juanes’ “El Ratico.” Additional nominations arrived for the Kaytranada-assisted track “10%,” which ultimately claimed the Best Dance Recording trophy, and for her second album, the largely Spanish-language Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞ of 2020, buoyed by the multi-platinum single “Telepatía.” She later delivered the introspective and refined third album Red Moon in Venus in 2023 before issuing the entirely Spanish-language Orquídeas the following year.

Born Karly-Marina Loaiza, Kali Uchis spent most of her formative years in Virginia while also residing for periods in her parents’ homeland of Colombia. During her teenage time in Alexandria, just below Washington, D.C., she took up piano and saxophone and cultivated a strong passion for visual expression. Her first recordings surfaced in 2012 through the independently issued mixtape Drunken Babble. Over the next three years she issued singles such as “Know What I Want” and “Lottery,” each typically accompanied by self-directed videos, and joined forces with Snoop Dogg, GoldLink, Tyler, The Creator, and Major Lazer. After the free digital-download release of Por Vida in 2015—an EP whose beats came from Diplo, Kaytranada, and Tyler—she began placing material with Virgin EMI. A DJ Dahi-reworked take on Por Vida’s “Ridin Round,” sent out that November once she had relocated to Los Angeles, marked her initial major-label single. The laid-back Kaytranada production “Only Girl,” which spotlighted Vince Staples alongside the Internet’s Steve Lacy, surfaced in April 2016, the same year she appeared on Daniel Caesar’s “Get You.”

Across 2017 she expanded her catalog of guest appearances on tracks by Juanes, Gorillaz, Tyler, Bootsy Collins, and Miguel while teasing her debut album through the singles “Tyrant” (with Jorja Smith) and “Nuestro Planeta” (with Reykon). By year’s end, “Get You” had secured a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Performance and Juanes’ “El Ratico” earned her a Latin Grammy nod for Record of the Year. January 2018 brought the BadBadNotGood-produced “After the Storm,” featuring Tyler and Bootsy. Three months later she unveiled Isolation, which entered the Billboard 200 at number 32 and the R&B/hip-hop chart at number four. Late in 2019 she contributed to Kaytranada’s album Bubba on the track “10%”; released as a single early the next year, it captured Best Dance Recording at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

The EP To Feel Alive surfaced in April 2020 and contained “i want war (BUT I NEED PEACE),” after which Uchis presented her debut Spanish-language album, Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞. The project included the multi-platinum Hot 100 hit “Telepatía” that reached number 25 and earned an early nomination for Best Música Urbana Album. A deluxe edition followed in 2021 with the SZA collaboration “Fue Mejor,” succeeded by a brief acoustic EP. Subsequent features arrived on Omar Apollo’s “Bad Life” and Ozuna’s “Another Day in America.” In 2022 she supplied a version of “Desafinado” for the Minions: The Rise of Gru soundtrack and dropped a pair of standalone singles. That momentum preceded Red Moon in Venus in March 2023, an album that brought Darkchild, WondaGurl, and Sir Dylan into her production circle; lead single “I Wish You Roses” became her second Hot 100 entry as a primary artist just before release.

Uchis maintained her pace into the next year, unveiling Orquídeas in January 2024—an album performed entirely in Spanish. The 14-track collection featured joint efforts with Karol G on “Labios Mordidos,” Peso Pluma on “Iqual E un Angel,” Rauw Alejandro on “No Hay Ley, Pt. 2,” and El Alfa and JT on “Munekitos.”