Kali Uchis: Age, Bio and More About the 'Moonlight' and 'Telepatía' Singer
Kali Uchis started her music career in 2012, and found success with her 2021 viral hit song "Telepatía." The 28-year-old built on the momentum the song afforded her and released her hit third album, Red Moon in Venus, in March 2023. The album earned rave reviews and includes the hits "I Wish You Roses" and "Moonlight."
The "Aquí Yo Mando" prides herself in not fitting into a musical box. Her music mixes her love of R&B, pop, hip-hop, dance, and Latin. It's how she could attract a diverse group of performers to join her at Coachella. Omar Apollo, Tyler, The Creator, and her boyfriend, Don Toliver, all joined her on the stage.
"I have so many different things that I am," Uchis told The New York Times before her Coachella performance. "In order to become marketable on a mass or mainstream scale, you have to water yourself down as a person, as an artist, because that's what the masses can understand. But it's always been important for me to just be myself, to keep my soul intact as much as I can," she added. "In this industry, there are so many ways to lose yourself as a person. But I think it's important that you're not trying to compromise what you have going on as an artist."
Uchis was born Karly-Marina Loaiza on July 17, 1994, in Alexandria, Virginia. Her parents are Colombian and fled Colombia in the early 1990s. He met Urchis' mother in the U.S. After Uchis was born, her father moved back to Colombia and she often spent her summers there. During a 2018 Rolling Stone interview, Uchis said her parents both live in Colombia now. "I was blessed to go to school in Virginia and visit Colombia – my family is still there, and my parents are there now," Uchis explained. "I got to experience both worlds in a way. I feel like that was really nice to have as a kid, and I would definitely want to give that to my own kid, the ability to have multiple places to call home. But Virginia is tricky because basically, it's between the North and the South."
After graduating from T.C. Williams High School, Uchis released her mixtape, Drunken Babble. Just two years after it was released, she recorded "On Edge" with rap legend Snoop Dogg. Her EP Por Vida followed in 2015, featuring her first work with Tyler, the Creator. Her first studio album, Isolation, was released in 2018. In April 2020, Uchis released the EP To Feel Alive, which she recorded at home while self-isolating during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. She released her second studio album, Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios), in November 2020.
The first two singles from the album were "Aquí Yo Mando" and "La Luz," but "Telepatía" got the most attention. It became a viral hit on TikTok, inspiring her to share a video explaining the influences of the song. "I wrote this song about spiritually being with someone I physically couldn't and while making it, I sent telepathic healing energy to everyone," Uchis explained. "Many say it transfers serotonin/love they can physically feel bcoz (sic) this song heals and makes you a better human being."
Uchis now lives in Valley Village, California, where she bought a home in 2019. Her net worth is an estimated $4 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. But do not expect her to take it easy anytime soon. The singer, who earned a second Grammy nomination for "10%" with Kaytanada in 2021, is out to change how people perceive Latin music.
"[Anglophone audiences] don't know anything about the roots of Latin music — they think Latin music should just sound like riki-tiki-ta!" Uchis told The Los Angeles Times in December 2020. "They think [Latinas are] beneath them like we're all just maids for the 'real' Americans. But then there are people in Latin America who say I'm not really Latina because I was born in the U.S."
Uchis is also openly bisexual. "I've been bisexual my whole life," she explained to the Los Angeles Times. "People are constantly trying to find something to invalidate. I want more people in the Latin community to feel like they can express themselves freely and not have to confine themselves. That's why it was so important to me to make this album — I want to show them what Latin music can be."
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