Kali Uchis

Mysterious, marvelous, and magnetic, Kali Uchis is a force of nature. The 28-year-old Grammy winner born Karly-Marina Loaiza first won fans with her Por Vida EP in 2015 and through multi-platinum collaborations like Daniel Caesar's "Get You" and Tyler, the Creator's "See You Again." Since then, she's earned critical praise and mainstream stardom with a pair of solo albums and a chart-topper of her own, 2021's "Telepatía."

Uchis' third solo album, Red Moon in Venus, blends her evocative, intimate songwriting with a well-honed interest in the elements. Inspired in part by astrology, but more so the connection between nature, humanity, and the heavenly bodies, she describes the album as "celestial."

"I've definitely always felt connected to learning more about how nature affects us and the stars and what is more of the bigger picture of life and philosophy," she says. "All of that stuff has really always interested me. It's not so much that it's meant to be an astrological title, but it was really the feeling behind the music."

Throughout her career, Uchis has always married the cosmic with more grounded, emotional insights. Both aspects are keenly felt on lead single "I Wish you Roses," a breakup song presented without bitterness, but with a hearty dose of compersion, as Uchis sings sweetly atop warm flecks of guitar, managing to show true tenderness without sacrificing her own self-worth.

"I feel like this album is about all the different levels of love, whether that be self love or bringing love into your life, calling love into your life, releasing people with love," she says.

Growing up between Colombia and Virginia, Uchis has played instruments all her life, and an early interest in jazz led her to perform in bands and ensembles throughout her adolescence. You'd never guess it from hearing her masterful vocal control and penchant for runs that cascade like waterfalls, but singing came late for Uchis. Entirely self-taught, Uchis began to take her voice seriously at 19, and quickly found a genre-blurring style that honored her love of R&B, reggaeton, hip-hop, and alternative music.

Uchis latest album has been in the works for half a decade, with several songs dating back to before her acclaimed 2020 album Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios). Ever prolific, Uchis hasn't been content simply to focus on one album, already chipping away at the marble slabs that will become her next Spanish-language project, as well as very early demos for what will end up being her fifth studio LP.

Raised in a bicultural, bilingual family and attending schools in both Colombia and the United States, Uchis says she's been "speaking Spanglish my whole life." That duality informs her music, and her free, borderless approach to creating.

"My brain has always worked in both languages and I think that definitely has played a huge part in my songwriting. Some days I might wake up like, 'I want to make a meringue-inspired song,'" she says. "And then some days I might wake up and think I want to do something really poetic in English, something super soulful."

Inspired by "timeless" women musicians like Sade and Björk, Kali Uchis builds a rich, realized world on Red Moon in Venus, inviting a handful of choice collaborators like Don Toliver and Summer Walker to make their mark. She and Omar Apollo share the spotlight on "Worth the Wait," a simmering, full-hearted love song by two prominent queer musicians of color. That track embodies the ethos of Red Moon, which Uchis has succinctly explained as ""Love is the message."

"That's because I feel like with this body of work, I was really trying to speak from my heart itself," she says. "To me, it's very much self-love music, something to put on in the bath lighting your candles or to do your skincare to or go on a long bike ride or be outside sunbathing."

In support of the new album, Uchis will embark on a sold-out headline tour through North America and perform at Coachella in addition to several major music festivals in South America with more to come.

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SHORT BIO

Kali Uchis is elemental, practically a force of nature. The 28-year-old Grammy winner born Karly-Marina Loaiza has a generational gift for blending the cosmic with the earthbound as fluidly as she combines genres ranging from neo soul to reggaeton to jazz. Her third solo LP, Red Moon in Venus is her most ambitious, fully-realized work to date, a sumptuous ode to love in all of its forms, told through honeyed vocal melodies and ornately layered instrumentation that took Uchis almost five years to make and an entire year to mix and master.

Led by the tender single "I Wish you Roses," a warm-hearted deviation from the usual breakup song formula," Red Moon expands on the world Uchis built with 2018's Isolation and 2020's Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios), acclaimed LPs that cemented her as both a mainstream star and critical darling. Red Moon, as its name suggests, burns hot, but also focuses on the bigger picture. It's the work of a true auteur capable of seeing love in every situation and capturing its vivacity and intricacy on record.

"I feel like this album is about all the different levels of love, whether that be self love or bringing love into your life, calling love into your life, releasing people with love," she says.

In support of the new album, Uchis will embark on a sold-out headline tour through North America and perform at Coachella in addition to several major music festivals in South America with more to come.