“I’m constantly trying to look at things from a different view and to put myself into some new perspectives to evolve myself, grow myself, and reinvent myself.”
― Kali Uchis
“I was a very creative child. I played the saxophone and piano, and I was always writing poetry and stories, or drawing in my notebook. I just tried to express myself through as many creative outlets as possible. And in high school, I started to get really into photography and videography and would spend hours working on it.”
― Kali Uchis
“I was one of those people at one point who was scared to put my foot down and show where the boundaries were. For me, it’s really important to stand your ground and know exactly what you are, where you wanna be, and what you’re doing, or else people are gonna try you.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m not a Barbie doll, I’m just a multidimensional human being who likes to make things.”
― Kali Uchis
“Not everything happens when you expect it; it is what it is. The people who ride with you, ride with you.”
― Kali Uchis
“No matter where you are, what point in your life you’re at, it’s not the end.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m into crystals and good energy and harnessing more. It’s just like prayer. It helps you be grateful, think about good things, and keep that positive energy around you.”
― Kali Uchis
“I never had a backup plan. I felt like if I had a backup plan, it was like saying to the universe that I didn’t believe in myself.”
― Kali Uchis
“The constant pressure to be the perfect, ideal female – there’s no such thing.”
― Kali Uchis
“I always felt you could age with style and grace, or you could age in denial and hold on to issues and never push through.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m constantly progressing. My style is changing every day.”
― Kali Uchis
“We’re all born into whatever citizenship, circumstances, or class we happen to be born into. Immigrants and so many people in the working class work so hard every day for nickels and pennies and scraps to just barely get by and then realize that this precious life has been completely drained out of us.”
― Kali Uchis
“The people, the culture… there’s so much magic in Colombia, so I feel like being a kid, being able to have that, being able to also call Colombia my home, it was such an important part of my introduction as an artist, too, because it’s such a big part of my life as a human being.”
― Kali Uchis
“California feels like Colombia but with less threats. I don’t have to be constantly looking over my shoulder.”
― Kali Uchis
“As female artists, we have to be constantly criticized for the way that we look, the way that we dress, on a whole other level that men don’t have to face.”
― Kali Uchis
“No one can decide what you should do, what course of action you should take to get where you wanna go, except for yourself.”
― Kali Uchis
“Aliens are definitely real.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m just inspired by life and, growing up, I listened to all types of different sounds, genres, and areas of music.”
― Kali Uchis
“On my off day, I really want to just lay in bed.”
― Kali Uchis
“When you’re an artist, you’re working, literally, for the sole purpose of art, and when people discredit you, it’s probably the most disrespectful thing you can do.”
― Kali Uchis
“I really love secondhand clothes. It’s fun to turn them into something new.”
― Kali Uchis
“If you really want to get over someone or something in your life, I suggest you throw on some Ivy Queen. She will have you feeling extra bossy.”
― Kali Uchis
“Selena is a classic and timeless singer, and she really doesn’t need an introduction. Her music is always good for the soul.”
― Kali Uchis
“Do you. Wear what you want to wear. Be an individual. Be unique and live your best life.”
― Kali Uchis
“You’re taught that it’s not very likely for you to become successful… that odds are you’re going to be a struggling artist for the rest of your life.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m naturally sort of a sad person, and that comes out in my music, but when I realized how many people were listening to it… I wanted to be a little more conscious about what I was putting out and what people were going to be taking from it.”
― Kali Uchis
“When I’m making a song, I try not to think about audience or genres. It’s free-flowing. Natural.”
― Kali Uchis
“That’s the best kind of music: the stuff that happens based off intuition.”
― Kali Uchis
“Being able to incorporate my language into songs is really cool. It’s really cool to see that people are susceptible to it. It helps with writing a lot to turn off one language and then go to another.”
― Kali Uchis
“Diplo kept asking me who styled my ‘What They Say’ video. I was like, ‘No, that’s just my clothes!’”
― Kali Uchis
“I can only be inspired if I’m working with people that I really respect.”
― Kali Uchis
“Some of my writing is very subconscious, and that’s definitely what happened with ‘Body Language’ – I looped some basic bossa nova sounds and just started singing.”
― Kali Uchis
“My first relationship was from when I was about 15 to 19. My second relationship was kind of like a rebound, but also a really important part of my journey – he was very emotionally manipulative and just wanted me to be an accessory.”
― Kali Uchis
“My dad’s job was to manage apartment complexes, so when people would move out or when people would die or whatever, people left things in their apartments, he would always bring me home people’s collection of music that they left behind. I was excited because I didn’t really have money to go to the CD store all the time.”
― Kali Uchis
“Music is your way to change the frequencies of everything around you and move your own body, move your whole environment.”
― Kali Uchis
“I love a good old-school reggaeton song.”
― Kali Uchis
“N.E.R.D. was also from – not too far from where I was from growing up. For a lot of people who make music, that was a huge influence in teen years.”
― Kali Uchis
“If my life is a movie – in the movie, there’s always the bad part. There’s also the parts where you’re down and out, and there are parts where everything’s amazing.”
― Kali Uchis
“Every time I go out to do shows, it just becomes a little bit more real and a little bit more full, so I’m excited just to see it hit its next level.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m Colombian-American. My father wanted me to have American citizenship, but he wanted to raise me in Colombia.”
― Kali Uchis
“My father is my hero. No matter what, I’ll always forgive him.”
― Kali Uchis
“Just because someone is your family member doesn’t mean they’re a good person.”
― Kali Uchis
“I don’t like to see people using their power over others, trying to hurt people who are weak or poor or people with darker skin or anyone who doesn’t have as much privilege. It makes me so angry. I want to fight for people. I want to be able to make some kind of difference in the world.”
― Kali Uchis
“I was kicked out of the house, and I was really difficult as a kid. I’m happy it happened because I was able to grow so much from it, you know? It’s always hurtful to feel that you can’t be on the same page with people that you love as much as your family. Sometimes they don’t know how to deal with all the things that are coming at them.”
― Kali Uchis
“Spanish is such an important language globally.”
― Kali Uchis
“When I start something, I have to finish it, and I’m a super perfectionist, too.”
― Kali Uchis
“It was really important for me to understand that I needed to provide for myself, and I needed to become a provider for my own family, too.”
― Kali Uchis
“I think it’s boring when everybody wears the same brands or the same styles, and it’s like, ‘Oh, this is the new trend.’”
― Kali Uchis
“I’ve done my own videos, I do my own styling, so I feel like I’ve just always been a visual artist… I was one of those kids who wanted to make my own clothes and take pictures of everything. Everything inspired me, and everything felt like art around me.”
― Kali Uchis
“I feel like fashion is about being innovative and being able to turn something into something else, making it cool, and making it your own.”
― Kali Uchis
“I grew up being very different and being ready to fight people. I wanted to stand up for myself, and I wanted to not let anyone think they know me based on appearances, so I was always just fighting back with people.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’ve always been someone who, without wanting to or without trying to, I draw attention to myself sometimes in negative ways. It made me sharp, and it made me quick.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m a big Gorillaz fan.”
― Kali Uchis
“Juanes is one of the legendary, iconic Colombian artists. Growing up in Colombia, you can’t really not have him on your radar. His songs are everywhere, and there’s a statue of him. He’s pretty big for Latin America, and for Colombia especially.”
― Kali Uchis
“It’s difficult as an artist sometimes. There’s a lot of pressure when it’s your first album. You want to make something that’s meaningful and timeless, not something that’s trendy.”
― Kali Uchis
“The reason I made my stage name Kali Uchis is because it’s still me in the sense that, my dad called me ‘Kali Uchis’ my whole life. It’s still something I’ve been called since I was a baby. It’s still me.”
― Kali Uchis
“When I was little, I went through a lot of phases, like any girl.”
― Kali Uchis
“My sun and my moon signs are mostly Cancer – it’s really strong. We’re deeply intuitive and sentimental. I really like to take care of people, nurturing them. I’m very passionate about the things I do and like to see people I love grow.”
― Kali Uchis
“I really try to balance my feminine and masculine energy when I write.”
― Kali Uchis
“It’s really natural for me to write bilingually.”
― Kali Uchis
“I never really wanted to be a singer. I always preferred to be behind the camera.”
― Kali Uchis
“I made music just for myself.”
― Kali Uchis
“You’re always taught that the world is so competitive. You’re taught that it’s not very likely for you to become successful and that odds are you’re going to be a struggling artist for the rest of your life.”
― Kali Uchis
“I wasn’t into social media at all, but when I decided I was going to put out my own music, I said, ‘Okay, I’m just going to post it.’ And that’s when it started its rounds on the Internet, and people started to take an interest in me.”
― Kali Uchis
“A lot of people were getting million-dollar deals from music I felt was trash, because their videos were going viral. I wanted to put out music that had soul, because that’s what was missing.”
― Kali Uchis
“Colombian culture has had a huge influence on me and taught me a different way of looking at things – I was always different from the people I went to school with, and I learned to embrace that.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’ve always experimented with my look. Growing up, I thought it was so weird that people dressed alike and all bought the same things.”
― Kali Uchis
“When I was 18 or 19, I realized that everything I was doing was connected to music – writing, doing videos, making my clothes. It all centered around being an artist. So I released a mixtape that I made in my bedroom, and it ended up getting a lot more attention than I expected.”
― Kali Uchis
“I used to love to look at cover art for vinyls.”
― Kali Uchis
“I am very much an artist. I like painting and collaging.”
― Kali Uchis
“I was always into music and stuff, so I would always make songs since I was little.”
― Kali Uchis
“It’s really not easy to be an artist. It’s not easy to put yourself out there and be honest. I’m making things that are really happening to me, and it’s not easy to share that with the world.”
― Kali Uchis
“A lot of people don’t give Virginia credit. Pharrell, Missy Elliott – a lot of people come from here.”
― Kali Uchis
“I was really grateful for the photography classes, the art classes, and the video classes. They would let me skip all my other classes and stay and work on my projects.”
― Kali Uchis
“I think everybody needs to be more empathetic.”
― Kali Uchis
“I never had any technical training. I never considered that, one day, I’m going to be Beyonce like a lot of girls aspire to be. It just kind of happened.”
― Kali Uchis
“I didn’t want to go to school, because I wanted to be an artist, and they were never going to teach me art. None of my family had ever done that kind of stuff either.”
― Kali Uchis
“The first time I did a show, I definitely didn’t get any money. My friend just let me do this show. I was so nervous: my mic didn’t work, and I was like, ‘Urgh.’ It was terrible. It was a dingy club off of the highway, but all these people came. It was packed out.”
― Kali Uchis
“When I got my MacBook, I started playing around with Garageband a lot. It was just a creative outlet. I put everything into it. I would skip all my classes just to be making my songs. Stuff like that made me feel good.”
― Kali Uchis
“As a musician, you are all the music that you absorb into your mind; that just subconsciously connects.”
― Kali Uchis
“I just like stuff that’s raw, itself, real and genuine. I think that’s the way art should be. That’s the kind of stuff that people can connect to more.”
― Kali Uchis
“You can consciously make a difference with music. Bob Marley is one of those few artists that everyone can say that they love. He makes you feel good. It’s very real.”
― Kali Uchis
“I like lowriders and music from the ’50s and ’60s. A lot of people assumed I was Mexican.”
― Kali Uchis
“I just know what I want for myself.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’ve never been pressed to be friends with everyone or be popular, even in school – I’ve always done my own thing.”
― Kali Uchis
“Back in the day, I used to get really upset when people used to say that I didn’t really make all my own things – like my art or my videos or whatever. I work really hard on everything, so it used to upset me when people would try to discredit me or say that I wouldn’t have what I had without this person or that person.”
― Kali Uchis
“As an artist, you have to work hard for things that you can’t really hold in your hand. I work not for money but for my career, to expand myself as an artist. Every video I make, it’s not making me any money; it’s just because I want to expand.”
― Kali Uchis
“I don’t operate on fear, and I don’t let fear control me.”
― Kali Uchis
“There’s no particular method or course of action that I take in order to decide who I’m going to work with besides feeling complete and total respect and admiration for that artist.”
― Kali Uchis
“I started making music by myself and figuring all of that on my own.”
― Kali Uchis
“I don’t really use any face products anymore because they make me break out. I like natural remedies. I usually put honey on my face. Sometimes, I put sugar in it so it’s an exfoliant, too. I add raw coconut oil, which is good as a face wash and a moisturizer.”
― Kali Uchis
“Sometimes I leave mayonnaise on the ends of my hair for a few hours while I’m writing; it’s a really good moisturizer.”
― Kali Uchis
“My favourite ‘stage’ of Shakira was the brunette punk rock one, but she’ll always have a special place in my heart, whatever she’s doing.”
― Kali Uchis
“La India’s voice is so powerful. It will give you life.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’ve always been very insecure and had a lot of self-doubt growing up. That was partially because of how I was raised.”
― Kali Uchis
“It’s easy to just write about love, because everyone can relate, but I like variety.”
― Kali Uchis
“While performing, I can’t wear anything that I’m not going to be able to dance in or heels that don’t have ankle support.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’ve always considered myself a person of color.”
― Kali Uchis
“I’m Colombian. My family all have different complexions; some are people of color. I’ve been called every name by white people, been mocked for speaking in Spanish by white people.”
― Kali Uchis
“I just believe in standing up for people and against discrimination. I consider myself an advocate for human rights.”
― Kali Uchis
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