Kali Uchis Gets Real About Spanish Lyrics in the Music Business: ‘People Kept Telling Me to Stick to English’

Kali Uchis has ne'er been 1 to travel the rules. From the commencement of her career, the Colombian-American singer/songwriter has carved her ain path, unabashedly blending and bending philharmonic genres — all portion rejecting the conception that she had to conform to a azygous connection oregon benignant to succeed. Her unrelenting committedness to individuality, however, hasn’t ever been embraced, but it has yet cemented her arsenic 1 of music’s astir compelling innovators.

“I had a batch of doors closed successful my face, and I had a batch of opportunities missed due to the fact that I consciousness similar cipher ever thought that this would get to this point,” Uchis says successful her Billboard screen story. “A connection that radical utilized a batch was ‘unique.’ At the time, those aesthetics weren’t truly popular. … I don’t deliberation that radical were acceptable for what I was doing.”

She reflects connected those aboriginal struggles with a consciousness of pridefulness and clarity, knowing that her refusal to compromise has brought her to the apical of the Billboard charts and sold-out arenas.

“People kept telling maine to instrumentality to English, that it was easier to merchantability euphony that way,” she admits. “I ever felt that [not] utilizing everything that God gave maine into my creation is the aforesaid arsenic spitting successful God’s face. … Why would God person made maine with this duality if I wasn’t meant to task it into my creation and usage it to animate different radical and to make with each of this that I have?”

The hitmaker graces Billboard‘s latest screen story, revealed connected Thursday (Oct. 16). The candid interrogation serves arsenic a preview of her upcoming Superstar Q&A astatine Billboard Latin Music Week 2025, acceptable to footwear disconnected Oct. 20 astatine The Fillmore Miami Beach. Her one-on-one speech with Billboard Español‘s Isabela Raygoza is acceptable for Tuesday, Oct. 21.

The afloat programming docket and summons income are disposable at BillboardLatinMusicWeek.com.