Kali Uchis exists in an orbit all her own. At just 29 years old, the genre-bending performer has already blazed a vibrant trail, boasting a Grammy win, a no-skips discography that’s landed her on Best Of lists year after year and a certain undeniable air of grace and timelessness. Born in Virginia to a family of Colombian immigrants, those around Uchis dreamed she’d go to college, get an education and carve out a good life for herself. Indeed, she has since found success beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. But as with everything else in her career, she’s done it on her own terms.
Raised in both the United States and Colombia, Uchis found her greatest love (and refuge) in music and writing at a young age, drawing early inspiration from Colombian pop and hip-hop, as well as jazz greats like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. She spent her childhood crafting poetry and later went on to play piano and saxophone during a stint in her school’s band. Upon graduation, she agreed to give community college a try—and she ended up dropping out just 15 days later. Instead, she put out her R&B heavy, doo-wop-tinted debut mixtape Drunken Babble for free on DatPiff in 2012. Self-produced on her laptop when she was still only 18, the project made waves across the Blog Era and in underground circles, eventually catching the attention of the likes of Snoop Dogg and Diplo. Still just a teenager, she was determined not to let her moment pass her by, managing to save up enough money from her grocery store job to move out to Los Angeles. By the time she self-released free debut EP Por Vida, Uchis’ ascent to the top felt all but imminent.
Her mainstream tipping point came in 2017, when she won over audiences with the Jorja Smith-featuring bop “Tyrant” and masterminded the irresistible, track-defining hook on longtime friend and collaborator Tyler, the Creator’s “See You Again,” which remains one of his biggest songs to date. The critical acclaim that met her 2018 debut LP Isolation was well-deserved, while the commercial success of her 2020 album Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) (her first Spanish record) was long overdue. And she put her R&B chops on full display last year with Red Moon in Venusa, sung mostly in English and featuring guest appearances from Summer Walker, Omar Apollo, and beau Don Toliver.
Now, with fourth album Orquídeas, Uchis is ready to embrace what she calls a “new era” for her music. “A lot of my music is very Spanglish because that’s how I was raised and that style comes more naturally to me,” she told Billboard back in 2022. “But I’m ready to give it my all.” She confirmed that she had two completed albums on deck—one in English and one in Spanish. With Red Moon in Venus appearing to be the English title, Orquídeas is its long-anticipated Spanish counterpart.
Uchis worked on Orquídeas at the same time as Red Moon in Venus, with some of the songs on the album dating back to early 2021. The result? Two projects whose rich sonic landscapes complement each other beautifully. “Red Moon in Venus was very down-tempo and soulful,” she recently explained to Vulture. “Orquídeas is my up-tempo album. It has an eerie yet still classic, feminine, luxurious quality.”
It wasn’t an easy path for the artist to trek. She’s spoken before about her first label refusing to promote Sin Miedo, alluding to concerns regarding the commercial potential of a Spanish-speaking album. But, citing the rich musical heritage and widespread misunderstanding of the diversity of Latin music, she knew it was something she wanted to do again. “When people think of a Latin artist, they think of one particular sound, when actually it’s so many genres,” she says. “That’s a big part of what I want to showcase when I make an album in Spanish.”
Named for Colombia’s national flower, Orquídeas is a masterful ode to Uchis’ ancestral roots. A project that artfully skywalks across a variety of Latin genres, including dembow, bolero, salsa and reggaeton, the project proves to be her most sonically ambitious to date—and boasts all-star level features to boot. The album’s lead single, the dembow-tinged summer heater “Muñekita,” sees Uchis bring together legendary Dominican rapper El Alfa and the City Girls’ own JT, and she taps Peso Pluma, Mexico’s crown prince of corridos tumbados, for the dreamy, groove-heavy “Igual Que Un Ángel.” Her rap skills are on full display alongside modern Colombian trap legend Karol G on the sapphic-suffused “Labios Mordidos” and she teams up with Puerto Rican reggaeton great Rauw Alejandro for club-ready “No Hay Ley Parte 2,” a remix of her 2022 hit that she first teased during her Coachella set last April.
Thematically, Orquídeas is an album that’s refreshingly rose-tinted. Uchis shows off her full vocal range on triumphant bolero self-love anthem “Te Mata” and embraces her own divine feminine on the cosmic “Diosa.” “Pensamientos Intrusivos,” the project’s standout track, unapologetically wears its heart on its sleeve, and the lush, star-crossed elation of “Young Rich & In Love” is as addictive as it is sultry. In an age of increasing social unrest, popular music has grown understandably sober. But that’s what makes a vibrant, romantic project like Orquídeas so rare, so special—and so necessary. In a world that can seem all too rooted in gray realism, Kali Uchis picks up a paintbrush, splashes swaths of color across her canvas and dares to dream.
Elizabeth Braaten is a writer from Houston, Texas.
