Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis on selling out shows and setting intentions

cool vocals and essential stage presence it's rising star Kali uchi's time to shine the Grammy Award winner is dominating the charts and now dominating the stage two ABC contributor Roxy Diaz spent time with the American Colombian singer songwriter just a few hours before the first of Two Sold Out shows at Radio City Music Hall [Music] trancing sensual and luxurious Grammy award-winning Colombian American Artist Kali uchis is captivating fans across the world becoming a global sensation while paying homage to her Latin roots and remaining true to her Artistry with genre bending hits like telepathia and see you again [Music] and can you make it last forever golly is breaking industry standards and is now among the many great artists to play at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York City with two sold out shows I had a chance to spend time with the 28 year old to talk about her road to the top hours before her performance Radio City Musical like it's huge Frank Sinatra Mariah Carey Lady Gaga Diana Ross like your name are now amongst the people that have sold out here has it hit you yet honestly I had no idea because since I'm not from New York I didn't realize until people from my friends from New York were like no this is Major this venue is so iconic Carly Marina loaiza born in Virginia and raised between the U.S and Pereira Colombia her family constantly traveled back and forth the songwriter absorbing the differences in culture that would soon influence her Artistry we were supposed to say living in in Colombia the rest of my life that was our plan so I kind of had to relearn what it was like to live in the United States I had to relearn a lot of because I was so young [Music] golly found solace in music expressing herself through poetry and directing music videos when did you first know you wanted to do music I realized what I was gonna pursue probably when I was like a senior in high school okay and because that was when I really had to start thinking about whether I wanted to pursue you know going to college or what I wanted to do in my life I mean my whole life I have been writing poems I have been recording songs and um I was in jazz bands I played saxophone I played piano so I was always a musical person how did that play with their family when they found out you wanted to pursue music like I can just imagine most of most of our Latin parents they're like no yeah you can be a doctor you're gonna be a lawyer yeah you know you say you're gonna do me you know so yeah I mean the main reason why we brought family to the United States and came to the United States was in order to like get an education um my dad had a fourth grade education and he grew up in the streets so it was really hard for him to understand why I wouldn't take advantage of you know being able to go to community college so I was definitely I think I think it's hard for any parents to understand that first because it's such a risky job golly stayed true to herself creating music in both English and Spanish I want all smart artists to know that you don't need to be just in one category one genre one language and was presented with the variety hitmakers crossover award in 2021 this year marks five years since the release of her elusive critically acclaimed debut album isolation taking fans to her world with Tyrant [Music] and after the storm with Tyler the Creator will come out [Music] the singer released her highly anticipated third studio album Red Moon in Venus in March [Music] and plans to release her second Spanish album later this year do you really identify with a crossover Artist as a label on you when I was first working on simula which was my second album but my first Latin album everybody um you know the label they were very against it because they're like you're not going to be able to translate to the Latin Market but for me like I said growing up bilingual I'm like that's gonna be inauthentic for me to just keep going in English and so they told me they're like we're not going to support you at all I was like okay it's fine it doesn't matter it's really what's what I really really want to do I'm gonna do it [Music] there's no denying Kylie's impact with over 29 million listeners on Spotify and her bilingual track telepathia streamed over 800 million times the fact that you were able to open up this land do you feel more pressure now don't think that my idea of success or my goals or my ambitions have ever been tied to numbers my goals and the things that I wish to do are more so tied to not compromising and I think that the person who really wins was a person that does whatever they want to do every day and really is happy you do compromise with your fans because they were in an uproar when you first started this tour and they weren't happy with the set list you actually changed the set list no okay like this is what they need to understand I started the tour having no rehearsals for the tour so I had to basically figure it out as I go along which was always kind of what I was planning to do so the first few shows was kind of in a sense like my rehearsals so I tell them like don't think that you bullied me into changing my family because the setlist was going to change regardless thousands lined up outside of Radio City eager to watch the show-stopping high Femme fantasy come to life some even breaking out in song Cali I love you thank you thank you for inspiring me to love my body and love me for who I am you guys came all the way from Minnesota how long have you been planning this for like a month and a half yeah oh my gosh golly transporting fans into her fantasy world of Glamor [Music] quiet timid person beautiful but then you get on stage and it's like a whole nother being up there it's like a different Cali is that something that you just keep yourself private um I think there's just a lot of different sides to me like there's you know um are you a Gemini no I'm just playing no I'm a cancer but I think um I feel that there is there are so many different dimensions that I'm able to really express myself fully when it comes to music and when it comes to performing [Applause] you promise to say yourself and true to that true to your sound yeah how do you plan on doing that I think just forever I think the production everyone has different intentions for why they do what they do somebody some people a lot of people might make music to become rich to become famous other people I think really want to contribute something to the world deeper and more meaningful than that and I would like to think that that's the type of artist that I am and that as long as I continue to retain that that intention that my music will never be compromised we'll never be compromised our thanks to Roxy for that hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the 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Channel: ABC News

Views: 154,459

Keywords: abc, american, arist, bending, bilingual, colombian, genre, intentions, kali, live, music, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-99346610, prime, singer, songs, songwriter, uchis

Id: NP2XobUB8fM

Length: 8min 24sec (504 seconds)

Published: Tue May 16 2023