After continuously breaking her curfew, Karly-Marina Loaiza was thrown out of her parent’s house at the age of 17. Taking her laptop and recording the lo-fi mixtape Drunken Babble after graduating from high school, she began to explore the art of music more in-depth. After uploading a video for the song “What They Say,” which caught the attention of Snoop Dogg, the two collaborated in 2014 and released “On Edge.” This was only the beginning of her pathway to success.
Loaiza was born in the city of Alexandria, Virginia. At the age of about four or five years old, she and her family moved back to her parent’s Colombian hometown, Pereira. Loaiza spent several years in a house full of birds listening to the Cuban band Los Zafiros. Her childhood nickname was Kali Uchis, which her father called her out of love. In grade school, she and her family moved back to their home in Virginia. Growing up as a teenager in Alexandria, she faced many family issues, as she often broke curfew and skipped class. However, an artistic side of Uchis emerged. She played the saxophone in her school’s jazz band and eventually became first chair. She also played piano at home and took on a deep interest in visual arts.
Karly-Marina Loaiza, now Colombian-American artist Kali Uchis, became an international pop sensation. As well as being a singer-songwriter, she is also a record producer and video director. She takes creativity to a whole new level. As a bilingual person, she wanted to expand her horizons and her songs reached many music lovers worldwide. By incorporating different genres such as R&B, pop, hip-hop, Latin, and even soul, she meticulously blended her Spanish roots with her music.
By breaking the barriers of music, Uchis continues her genre-bending journey by collaborating with artists such as Tyler The Creator, SZA, Gorillaz, Bootsy Collins, Daniel Caesar, Karol G, and more. In 2018, she was nominated for the Grammy for Best R&B Performance for “Get You” alongside Caesar. In the same year, she released her first debut album Isolation worldwide. She opens the album with the Brazilian-jazz intro ‘Body Language.’ “There’s no tracking where I’m going / There’s no me for them to find,” she sings on the intro. Soul, reggaetón, pop, and elastic funk, all tied into her jazzy vocals, demonstrate her playfulness and experimentation in her first album.
Her second studio album, Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios), or Without Fear (of Love and Other Demons), drove her recognition even further. She won ‘Favorite Latin Song’ on the American Music Awards for one of her many hit songs “telepatía,” a song about bilingual lovers separated by distance, which is featured on this album. This song became popular among many social media platforms, especially TikTok, which allowed her music to reach a broader audience. Setting her success in stone, she was also featured in the song “10%” by Katranada, which won a Grammy for ‘Best Dance Recording’ in 2021.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards, stemming from the Billboard Magazine and Musics Program, honors many successful Latin stars in the music industry. After just winning a Grammy, the Colombian singer-songwriter won ‘Latin Pop Album of the Year’ on the Billboard Latin Music Awards for her second album. Uchis was also nominated for ‘Female Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year,’ ‘New Artist of the Year,’ ‘Latin Pop Song of the Year,’ ‘Latin Pop Artist of the Year,’ and many other titles, highlighting her overall success.
On her journey of making music, Uchis faced challenges when marketing, capitalism, and social media came into play. She grew up without social media, and English is her second language, compared to Spanish. As she embedded her bicultural experience into her songs by writing in both languages, she faced backlash from her first label who didn’t see her vision for Sin Miedo, her first album written completely in Spanish. After her success with “telepatía” which became her most globally commercial song on this album, she gained more support by now working with Interscope Geffen.
Setting herself apart from other well-known Spanglish artists such as Shakira, Uchis points out that what makes her different is that she carves out an entirely different world of both English and Spanish. “The question is always, ‘Where are you from, Colombia or America?’ I’m a dual citizen. ‘Dual citizen, okay, but what genre are you doing? What language do you speak?’ It’s hard for people to wrap their head around it,” she told reporter Tirhakah Love during an interview for Vulture. This, along with trying to embrace her uniqueness in the music industry by inspiring other artists to not confine themselves to trying to fit in, set the milestones for her journey as an artist.
Along with her confidence, her stage presence and visuals are also unmatched, as she captivates the audience to feel the magnetism in her dancing and soul incorporated into her songs. At the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival this year, with warm-dimmed lights and an enchanting stage, Kali Uchis was featured by Tyler the Creator with the fan-favorite song “See You Again.” This annual music festival is considered one of the most famous and profitable in the United States and the world to spark encouragement for music artists and influencers to showcase their talent.
Her most recent album, Red Moon in Venus, has been in development since 2018 and was released just in March of last year. Filled with songs about love of all varieties, the album exults physical and emotional closeness and sets the tone of warmness and sultry. The title itself is connected to Venus, the planet of love, and her astrological sign Cancer. The pathos behind a red moon exerts her application of love into her project.
Each song is lyrically packed with timelessness and sentimental aspirations. “I Wish You Roses” and “Deserve Me,” two tracks that feature the R&B artist Summer Walker, show an explicit contrast between the messages behind both songs. However, both are tied into the entire theme of love. While “Deserve Me” is mainly centered around the idea of self-worth and closing someone out of your life, “I Wish You Roses” heavily emphasizes acceptance and her wishing the best for her and her lover who parted ways.
“As I grew up, I had to unlearn a lot of things that I developed to protect me, which I developed while in survival mode. As an adult, it was important to put [that message] out into the world. It’s me telling the universe: ‘I’m ready for my roses. I’m wishing everybody roses,’” she told André-Naquian Wheeler during an interview for Vogue.
In making her most recent album, Orquídeas, which was released in January 2024, she made another entrance into the Latin industry. Still considered new in the Latin music world, she decided to put herself to the test by releasing her second Spanish-language album. In her song “Labios Mordidos,” which featured Latin superstar Karol G, she proved her artistic talent and favored a comfortable environment for open LGBTQ+ representation in reggaetón.
While embarking on her journey as a Latin music artist, she took on a new role, that of being a mother. For months, her pregnancy was kept hidden from fans in hopes of not letting them down by canceling her tour for Red Moon in Venus. With the support of her boyfriend, Houston-born rapper Don Toliver, the couple maintained their hard-earned privacy by remaining discreet on social media. However, on January 11th, 2024, the couple announced her pregnancy in the video for ‘Tu Corazón es Mío’ and its companion ‘Diosa.’
As a bilingual person, Kali Uchis wanted to expand her horizons, and her songs reached many music lovers worldwide. By incorporating different genres such as R&B, pop, hip-hop, Latin, and even soul, she meticulously blended her Spanish roots with her music.