Risktaking, Love and ‘Princess Treatment’

Kali Uchis has built her career on taking risks.

With “Orquídeas,” her second Spanish-language album (and fourth overall), Uchis asks her collaborators — which range from global superstars Peso Pluma, Rauw Alejandro, El Alfa and Karol G to JT from the City Girls — to match her level of fearlessness, urging them to step outside of their comfort zone on a playground of pop, merengue, reggaeton, house music and more.

The record’s cover art — which references Prince’s 1988 album “Lovesexy,” among others — visually encapsulates where Uchis is in her life and career, some 11 years after releasing her first mixtape: in the center, with her naked body wrapped tightly in rope as a colorful palette of pastel orchids paints the empty spaces.

“I loved the juxtaposition of the harshness of the rope and the softness of the flower,” she tells Variety. “I think the entire theme of this record revolves around that juxtaposition.”

When she released her debut EP “Por Vida” in 2015, Uchis — born Karly-Marina Loaiza in Virginia to Colombian immigrant parents — defined herself as an outcast of mainstream pop for her unwavering effort to do things her way. “The scope of how the music industry views Latinas is so boxed, and tied into certain stereotypes — I’m speaking in regards to sound — that one of my main priorities has always been to express myself as freely as I can and be as creatively limitless as I can be,” she says. “I’m a Latina who makes music in English and Spanish. Having my artistry pinned down to my ethnicity as if it’s a genre is weird to me. I do feel kind of pigeonholed by the term Latin artist, so I try to challenge that narrative a bit.”

In the last few weeks, she’s made appearances on traditional Latin outlets just as much as American media, fulfilling the promise she makes in “Heladito,” the second to last track on the new LP. “No soy pop star, pero si soy internacional” (“I’m not a pop star, but I am international”),” she sings.

“You have to put in double the work,” Uchis says. “It’s only my second album in Spanish so it’s almost like I’m putting out a sophomore album. I do have this sort of overwhelming feeling like I have to work twice as hard to be seen. At the same time, it’s interesting and invigorating in that way because there is still so much that I want to do in both spaces.”

Spending time between home bases in both South and North America, and nestled in her family’s home near the Colombian city of Pereira, Uchis found inspiration for her sound and image in TV, film and music; she cites the brooding vocals of Latin soul singer La Lupe as an early muse. “I looked to things or people, mainly women, that inspired me to be confident or to live boldly,” she says. “I didn’t have many female role models around me, so I found representation somewhere else.”

In Spanish-language soap operas, Uchis discovered the archetypal woman: perfectly polished fingernails, overly lined lips, sassy attitudes and luxurious lifestyles to match. In the music video for “Te Mata” (“It Kills You”), Uchis emulates this archetype, gaining revenge over a toxic ex by lighting his sportscar in flames. 

“That’s in the past now and that’s not me anymore,” she sings in the dreamy bolero — the haunting, yet romantic orchestral musical style that originated in Cuba in the late 1920s. “If that makes me bad, well, then a devil is what I am.”

The 13-song set, sung primarily in Spanish, is “definitely for the girls,” Uchis says. “The underlying concept is princess treatment – setting your standards to a certain level. It’s about self-love, luxury and divine femininity, with elements of mystery and classic hints of what I feel makes my music mine. I try to infuse a kind of regenerative force in my songs.”

Flirty, dreamy, sensual, and nostalgic, Uchis’ catalog — from her earliest dip into doo-wop to her latest venture into raunchy perreo — has defined her as an artist who only does what she wants. In songs like “Diosa” (“Goddess”) and “Como Así?” (“How So?), she declares herself the center of her man’s universe and is unyielding about her approach to love in the song “Piensameintos Intrusuvos” (“Intrusive Thoughts”), vowing to keep her hopeless romanticism despite the fact “life has broken this heart of mine a thousand times.”

Uchis actively avoids negative comments or reviews as much as she can (“My team sends me the positive stuff… I don’t have access to see anything negative”) and never gives away too many personal details about her life or relationship with rapper Don Toliver. But one day before her record’s release, Uchis confirmed the months-long rumor that she was pregnant with their first child in a music video.

“I haven’t had a lot of relationships, but when I am in a relationship, and especially in this one… I’m very present,” she says. “I think that a lot of people are afraid to be in love for that reason — it can be so consuming. There will always be the risk of getting hurt or things not working out. You’ll be left thinking of how or why you could give so much yourself to something that didn’t work out — but, I’ve never had that type of fear. Life is meant to be lived. To me, love is the most important thing in the world and I am surrounded by it, I feel it everywhere… and I’m honestly excited about this year. It’s going to be such a transformative time in my life.”

When it comes to music, Uchis loves to be unpredictable. With this record, Mexican trap-corrido hitmaker, rapper and singer Peso Pluma’s feature on “Igual Que Un Ángel” is an immediate standout. For the first time, Peso’s gravelly vocals seem honeyed as he sings over a disco-pop beat — the result is unexpectedly sweet.

“I knew I wanted him on the album,” Uchis recalls. “I sent him ‘Igual’ and ‘Te Mata,’ but I didn’t expect him to pick this one. When I wrote ‘Igual,’ it felt very complete and I didn’t think that it needed a feature but when [Peso] heard the song, he loved it and he wanted to jump on it. I’m always going to encourage people to try something different. Sometimes that can be scary because there’s going to be people who only want to hear you exactly how they’re used to hearing you but in the end, I think it’s just so impressive.”

Other featured guests took more convincing. Mutual fans of each other, and sister Colombianas and now labelmates (Interscope), Karol G and Uchis first spent studio time together in 2021 for their collaboration “Me Tengo Que Ir,” a song that ultimately landed on Karol’s “Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season).”

By then, Uchis had also already written “Labios Mordidos” and shown it to Karol, but “[Karol] was unsure about getting on a song that was more perreo for me… we both wanted [‘Labios Mordidos’] on our records,” she explains with a laugh.

“We were working together on a few things and when we started working on ‘Me Tengo Que Ir,’ I think that was more what she had in mind of what we would do together because it’s a bit dreamier. It took a little explaining – me being like ‘No, you don’t understand! ‘Labios Mordidos’ is where I want to go.’ I was just happy that she was open to taking that risk. In the end, we kind of ended up trading sounds a bit.”

Uchis also approached Rauw Alejandro with a similar sentiment: the official and long-awaited release of Alejandro’s remix of her 2022 single, “No Hay Ley.” “The song was meant to sound nostalgic, so it’s kind of cool because now it actually is an old song,” she says.

A few steps ahead, Uchis promises we’ll be hearing more new music from her as she plans to drop another album later this year.

“I already knew how I wanted it to sound, what story I wanted to tell and how I wanted it to play out conceptually,” she says of her fifth record. “All I can say is that writing for it has been a super healing process. I have projects completed and some in the works, so it’s just a matter of time.”