Kali Uchis Scores A Bilingual Viral Hit With “Telepatía”

Kali Uchis has always honored her Colombian heritage, but she rose to fame releasing music primarily in English (with some exceptions). When she dropped her album, Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞ last year, she expressed concern about how her fan base would receive a project sung almost entirely in Spanish. In hindsight, she had no reason to worry. The singer’s “Telepatía” recently debuted at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and is racking up millions of stream in the process, with the potential to become one of her biggest songs yet.

Like many modern hits, “Telpatía” got a major boost from TikTok, with its laid-back, romantic vibe soundtracking everything from explainer videos to comedy posts and (in particular) a lip-sync challenge. It’s appeared in nearly 200,000 videos to date after beginning to take off in mid-February, with fans focusing on the song’s mixed English and Spanish first verse:

You know I’m just a flight away
If you wanted you can take a private plane
A kilómetros estamos conectando
Y me prendes aunque no me estés tocando
You know I got a lot to say
All these voices in the background of my brain

“I wrote this song about spiritually being with someone I physically couldn’t, and while making it I sent healing telepathic love to all,” she said in a TikTok of her own posted earlier this week.

The track saw an initial burst of pageviews on Genius shortly after its release last November, but interest really started to pick up around Valentine’s Day of this month. As it turns out, the song’s bilingual lyrics have been a draw, with both the original Spanish lyrics and the track’s English translations earning roughly 100,000 pageviews each on Genius. Interest in the lyrics reached a new peak this week, with 18,000 pageviews across both languages on Tuesday, Feb. 24:

“I grew up bilingual, speaking Spanglish in my house, so it would be inauthentic to sing completely in Spanish or in English because that’s not how I talk,” Uchis, who spent her youth in both Colombia and Alexandria, Va., told The Evening Standard. “At my concerts, when I do songs and covers in Spanish, I see people being receptive. They aren’t as closed-minded as they used to be.”

Of course, the US is no stranger to embracing Spanish-language music, with acts like Bad Bunny, Ozuna, ROSALÍA, KAROL G, and more finding huge success stateside in recent years. But Uchis still took a risk releasing Sin Miedo after making a name for herself with English-language music.

“Telepatía” debuted at No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, the first such chart entry of her career. It currently sits at No. 7 on Spotify’s US Top 50 and No. 14 on the Global Top 50, and later debuted at No. 54 on the Hot 100 chart.

Uchis previously racked up over 100 million Spotify streams with songs like “Dead to Me” and the Tyler, The Creator-assisted “After the Storm,” but this marks her first Hot 100 entry as a lead artist. Although she also has an English-language follow-up project planned, “Telepatía” shows that she can find great succeed with one foot in both spheres.

Read all the lyrics to Kali Uchis' “Telepatía” and its English translations on Genius now.

This article has been updated to reflect “Telepatía” debuting at No. 54 on the Hot 100 chart.