Kali Uchis Gets Real About Spanish Lyrics in the Music Business: ‘People Kept Telling Me to Stick to English’
Kali Uchis has never been one to follow the rules. From the start of her career, the Colombian-American singer/songwriter has carved her own path, unabashedly blending and bending musical genres — all while rejecting the notion that she had to conform to a single language or style to succeed. Her unrelenting commitment to individuality, however, hasn’t always been embraced, but it has ultimately cemented her as one of music’s most compelling innovators.
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“I had a lot of doors closed in my face, and I had a lot of opportunities missed because I feel like nobody ever thought that this would get to this point,” Uchis says in her Billboard cover story. “A word that people used a lot was ‘unique.’ At the time, those aesthetics weren’t really popular. … I don’t think that people were ready for what I was doing.”
She reflects on those early struggles with a sense of pride and clarity, knowing that her refusal to compromise has brought her to the top of the Billboard charts and sold-out arenas.
“People kept telling me to stick to English, that it was easier to sell music that way,” she admits. “I always felt that [not] utilizing everything that God gave me into my art is the same as spitting in God’s face. … Why would God have made me with this duality if I wasn’t meant to project it into my art and use it to inspire other people and to create with all of this that I have?”
The hitmaker graces Billboard‘s latest cover story, revealed on Thursday (Oct. 16). The candid interview serves as a preview of her upcoming Superstar Q&A at Billboard Latin Music Week 2025, set to kick off Oct. 20 at The Fillmore Miami Beach. Her one-on-one conversation with Billboard Español‘s Isabela Raygoza is set for Tuesday, Oct. 21.
The full programming schedule and ticket sales are available at BillboardLatinMusicWeek.com.
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