When Kali Uchis picked the orchid as the title and theme of her new album Orquídeas, which arrived on Friday (Jan. 12), she didn’t know it was the flower of fertility. And then, later in her rollout, she found out she was pregnant with her first child, telling Billboard News, “It all came together perfectly.”
“The flower, for me, it always symbolized timelessness, femininity, luxury,” says the Colombian artist. “It has an eerie, mystical quality about it as well. It’s also the national flower of Colombia, so for me it all tied in.”
Orquídeas is Uchis’ fourth album and second Spanish-language full-length (she typically switches between English and Spanish on each project). Features include her friend Karol G (“Labios Mordidos”), plus Peso Pluma (“Igual Que Un Ángel”), Rauw Alejandro (“No Hay Ley Parte 2”) and the “unpredictable” pairing of City Girls’ JT alongside El Alfa (“Muñekita).
The Grammy winner debuted in 2018 with Isolation, followed by Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) in 2020 and last year’s Red Moon In Venus. She believes that Orquídeas, defined by its uptempo, high-energy productions, perfectly compliments those prior albums.
“I’m not a new artist anymore, I’m looking at my discography as a whole,” she says. “My next album that I’ve been working on that is also going to come out this year is all downtempo music. So being able to have to contrast, there’s so much within me that needs to be expressed and I never want to confine myself to anything.”
She confirms that forthcoming fifth album was written and recorded while pregnant, which is perhaps where the inspiration for a more soothing, lower energy release came from. And while she says “there’s so much to be excited for” about motherhood (she will soon welcome her first born with longtime partner Don Toliver), she also admits how hard it was to keep her pregnancy private, saying she…
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