Kali Uchis' Isolationism Unites Fans

Kali Uchis is riding high on widespread praise for her debut LP, Isolation, but coming off big moments at festivals including Bonnaroo, Governors Ball and Coachella and the just-announced “In Your Dreams” tour taking in her largest headline shows yet, the 24-year-old Colombian-American is doing anything but isolating herself.

Uchis, real name Karly-Marina Loaiza, effortlessly and tastefully blends a range of styles including R&B, soul and funk while seamlessly transitioning from English to Spanish, such as on the dancehall reggaetón smash “Nuestro Planeta.”

Adding to her impressive vocals, taste and songcraft are a host of tastemakers in the recorded music world, with prominent features from the likes of Jorja Smith, Bootsy Collins of Parliament Funkadelic fame and rapper Tyler, The Creator, who joined her onstage at Coachella for the super-funky “After The Storm” – to mass squealing from the crowd.

The LP, which dropped on Interscope April 6, peaked at No. 32 on Billboard’s Hot 200 chart and garnered praise from publications including Rolling Stone, NME, Pitchfork and many others for its ability to harken back to the days of old but with a fresh style and talent to match.

“I definitely learned a lot and grew from the experience,” Uchis told Pollstar of the recording process. “Most importantly, I’m proud of my contribution. How well received it was critically is still a huge surprise to me and I am so blessed for that.”

Lending production and co-songwriting credits are a host of other impressive figures, including BadBadNotGood, Blur/Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn and funky bassist Thundercat.

Uchis’ manager, Jon Lieberberg, told Pollstar the “In Your Dreams Tour” initial onsale moved 12,000 tickets and “couldn’t have gone better” with sellouts including the Shrine Expo in Los Angeles.

“To sell 5,000 tickets in L.A., where she’s based, is quite something,” he said, adding that Santa Ana’s Observatory (1,000 capacity) is also sold out, with Terminal 5 (3,000 capacity) and San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre (2,450) close while “all Texas dates are selling extremely well.”

Lieberberg, who previously worked at Roc Nation, now independently manages SOPHIE, Ludwig Goransson, Kadhja Bonet, Corbin, and Matthew Dear, and is the nephew of prominent German concert promoter Marek Lieberberg. Before Roc Nation, Lieberberg spent time at Live Nation UK before moving to the Los Angeles office as VP of international touring, where he worked on tours including Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West.

Earlier this year, Uchis sold out Oakland’s Fox theatre (2,828 tickets, $99,000 grossed), but WME agent Kevin Shivers – part of the team representing her that also includes Jay Belin and Cristina Baxter – says this is “the Kali Uchis headline tour that all her fans have been waiting for.”

The touring strategy has been straightforward, Shivers said, as “We wanted her to play the marquee events, that was the first and foremost, and wanted to be able to come back in the fall.”

Uchis – a nickname given to her by her father – offers personal reasons when asked about highlights thus far in her touring career.

“I think my favorite so far was my recent show at a festival in Colombia because I was so happy to be able to finally share that experience with all my people and my family,” said Uchis, who spent time between her parents’ native Colombia and near Washington, D.C., growing up. “And I was also given my first gold plaque right before the show, it was just a really special night,” she added, referring to the Estéreo Picnic in Bogota in late March that also included LCD Soundsystem, DJ Snake and The National.

Coughs – Kali Uchis
at the Novo in Los Angeles June 10.

Along with the major festivals, Uchis got in front of more fans in Q1 with a support slot on Lana Del Rey’s major arena tour, which all the involved parties say was a match made in heaven.

“I was honored to be able to tour with her,” Uchis said. “I really respect artists who have so much success without having to put out music that sounds like everything else. The people who appreciate those types of artists are the kind of people who would appreciate my work too.”

The support slot also had the intended effect of gaining new fans.

“The engagement was immediate,” Lieberberg added. “When Kali and I discussed it initially, the idea was that we do think we have crossover potential between Lana’s fans and ours, but we also went in knowing that probably 90 percent of Lana’s fans who had purchased tickets had not heard of Kali.

“We saw strong engagement from the crowd just during her 30- to 40-minute sets, and following up we saw strong increase in social engagements,” Lieberberg said, adding that sometimes a big support slot doesn’t work when the fans don’t respond but, “on this specific occasion it couldn’t have been better.”

Those 18 Lana Del Rey dates with Uchis as support sold more than 156,000 tickets and grossed $12 million according to Pollstar’s Boxoffice.

Stressing the importance of visuals and production quality, Lieberberg said her live show includes a full band with Kali in total control of the crowd.

“From the get-go she has a very engaged audience – a very young and very hip crowd, so you have a lot of kids from all ethnicities, boys, girls, definitely in the 16-25 demographic which gives it a special dynamic,” Lieberberg said. “From the moment Kali goes onstage and the first chords are played, everyone is singing along to every song.”

For the upcoming tour, Uchis says, “I’m just always excited to expand. To take who I am and make myself five times better every time.”