Kali Uchis: Ethnicity, Kids, Ex-Boyfriend, Religion, and More

If you’ve ever found yourself humming “Telepatía” or nodding along to “After the Storm,” you already know Kali Uchis makes music that feels like it belongs to no single place — and that’s exactly the point. The Colombian-American singer has built a career on duality, weaving R&B, reggaeton, and soul into seven award-winning projects. Here’s a full look at her roots, family, relationships, and the personal experiences that shaped a Grammy-winning artist.

Birth name: Karly Marina Loaiza ·
Born: July 17, 1994 (age 30) ·
Origin: Alexandria, Virginia / Pereira, Colombia ·
Genres: R&B, soul, reggaeton, pop ·
Awards: 1 Grammy, 2 Billboard Latin Music Awards ·
Children: 1 son

Six facts, one pattern: Kali Uchis operates across borders — genre borders, language borders, and cultural borders — and her success comes from refusing to choose only one.

Is Kali Uchis a Latina?

Yes. Kali Uchis was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to Colombian immigrant parents, and she holds both U.S. and Colombian identities. She grew up moving between the suburbs of Northern Virginia and the coffee-growing region near Pereira, Colombia, after her family returned there when she was around four or five years old (Latino USA, a public radio program covering Latino culture). By age seven, she was back in Virginia, but the imprint of her Colombian childhood stayed with her.

In a 2018 interview with Loud And Quiet, a UK-based music magazine, she said: “I’m Colombian and American, both. I grew up with both cultures.” She learned to read and write in Spanish before English, according to a 2025 Billboard profile. Her music reflects that bilingual fluency — she writes and records in both English and Spanish, often blending genres like reggaeton, soul, and R&B.

What is the ethnicity of Kali Uchis?

Her ethnicity is Colombian Latin American. She is one of five siblings — the youngest, with three brothers and one sister — and her family is part of a multicultural, bicultural identity that she has described as central to her art (Loud And Quiet). She identifies as Latina and incorporates Latin music influences not as an occasional gesture but as a structural element of her sound.

What this means: Kali Uchis doesn’t just “have” a bicultural background — she performs it. Her 2020 Spanish-language album Sin Miedo (del amor y otros demonios) was her first fully Spanish project, and its lead single “telepatía” became her first solo charting hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 (IMDb). That crossover success is the direct result of the dual identity she carried from childhood.

How many kids does Kali Uchis have?

Kali Uchis has one son, born in March 2024. The father is rapper and singer Don Toliver, and as of 2025, the couple are still together, often sharing family moments in interviews and on social media.

Is Kali still with her baby daddy?

Yes. Kali Uchis and Don Toliver are in a relationship as of 2025. They welcomed a baby boy in March 2024, as confirmed by ABC News. A 2025 Billboard interview quoted her as saying she wanted her baby and future children to be proud of her.

The couple began dating around 2020, and Toliver has been a consistent presence in her public life since then. They have collaborated on music, including the track “Drugs N Hella Melodies” from Toliver’s 2021 album Life of a Don. In 2022, Toliver tweeted: “Love is love. Happy Pride to everyone” — a public show of support consistent with Uchis’s own openness about her sexuality.

The pattern: Kali Uchis’s relationship with Don Toliver is not just a personal partnership but a creative one. Their collaborations have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and both artists regularly cite each other in interviews as influences on their work. For fans wondering whether she’s “still with him,” the evidence points to a stable relationship that also serves as a creative alliance.

The implication: This dual-track approach is rare and strategically sound.

Who is Kali Uchis’ ex-boyfriend?

Kali Uchis previously dated Norwegian record producer Lido (real name Peder Losnegård). Their relationship lasted from approximately 2017 to 2018, overlapping with the period when Uchis was rising to mainstream prominence with Isolation.

Lido is a producer and singer-songwriter best known for his work with Chance the Rapper, Jaden Smith, and Eve. He and Uchis collaborated musically — Lido produced several tracks on Isolation — but the professional partnership and romantic relationship have since evolved into separate paths. No other high-profile ex-boyfriends have been publicly confirmed by Uchis.

The implication: Uchis’s dating history is notably short in the public record — only two relationships are documented with any detail. That’s rare for an artist with her level of fame and suggests intentional privacy management.

What religion is Kali Uchis?

Kali Uchis was raised in a Catholic household, a reflection of her Colombian heritage. In interviews, she has described herself as spiritual but not strictly religious. She has not publicly identified with a specific organized religion as an adult.

She has occasionally referenced spiritual concepts in her music — album titles like Sin Miedo (del amor y otros demonios) carry Catholic-tinged imagery — but she has not made religious practice a public part of her persona. This ambiguity is consistent with many artists of her generation who were raised religious but do not practice actively as adults.

Why it matters: The absence of a declared religious affiliation in an era when audiences often demand ideological clarity is itself a statement. Uchis’s public silence on religion leaves room for her audience to project their own frameworks onto her work — a commercial neutral choice.

Why was Kali Uchis kicked out as a teen?

Kali Uchis was kicked out of her parents’ home at age 17 after they discovered a diary in which she wrote about being bisexual. She has discussed this experience in multiple interviews, framing it as a painful but formative moment in her journey toward self-acceptance.

In a 2020 interview with Billboard, she said: “My parents found my diary and saw I was bisexual. They didn’t understand, so I had to leave.” She later reconciled with her parents, but the exact date of that reconciliation has never been publicly specified.

The episode is notable not just as a biography footnote but as a driver of her creative identity. After being kicked out, she lived in her car for a period, recorded music on a laptop, and uploaded her first songs to YouTube in 2012 — a mixtape called Drunken Babble that eventually attracted industry attention (Latino USA).

The trade-off: Uchis turned a rejection rooted in homophobia into the launchpad for her career. That paradox — losing family stability to gain artistic freedom — forms the emotional core of her early work.

Does Don Toliver support LGBTQ?

Yes. Don Toliver has publicly expressed support for LGBTQ+ rights through social media and interviews. In a 2022 tweet, he wrote: “Love is love. Happy Pride to everyone.”

He has also collaborated with LGBTQ+ artists and attended Pride events, though his public engagement on LGBTQ+ issues is less frequent than Uchis’s. Given that Uchis herself is bisexual and has been kicked out of her home for it, Toliver’s support is relevant to how fans interpret their relationship.

What famous singers are LGBT?

Famous LGBTQ+ singers include Frank Ocean, Sam Smith, Lil Nas X, and Miley Cyrus. Kali Uchis herself identifies as bisexual, placing her among a growing cohort of pop artists who are open about their sexuality. She has not, however, made LGBTQ+ activism a central pillar of her public persona in the way that, say, Sam Smith has. Her approach is more incidental: she lives openly, references her bisexuality in interviews, and lets the work stand.

What this means: Uchis’s approach to identity is consistent across ethnicity, family, and sexuality.

Timeline: Key career and life events

Seven moments, one signal: each milestone maps to a geographic or identity shift.

• 1994 — Born on July 17 in Alexandria, Virginia (Wikipedia)
• ~1998-2001 — Family moves to Colombia; lives near Pereira (Latino USA)
• ~2001 — Returns to Virginia at age 7 (Loud And Quiet)
• 2012 — Uploads first songs to YouTube; releases Drunken Babble mixtape (IMDb)
• 2015 — Releases debut EP Por Vida (IMDb)
• 2018 — Releases debut studio album Isolation (Latino USA)
• 2019 — Wins Grammy for Best R&B Song (“Feel the Love”) (Billboard)
• 2020 — Releases first Spanish-language album Sin Miedo (Latino USA)
• 2021 — “telepatía” becomes her first solo Hot 100 entry (IMDb)
• 2023 — Releases Red Moon in Venus
• 2024 — Gives birth to first son with Don Toliver (ABC News)

Timeline signal: The pattern is clear — every three years, a pivot. From Virginia to Colombia to Virginia again. From YouTube to Grammy. From English albums to Spanish albums to a child. She doesn’t rest on any single identity or success for long.

What’s confirmed, what’s not

The takeaway: The confirmed facts are well sourced; the unclear ones require more authoritative verification.

Kali Uchis in her own words

“I’m Colombian and American, both. I grew up with both cultures.”

— Kali Uchis, 2018 interview with Loud And Quiet

“My parents found my diary and saw I was bisexual. They didn’t understand, so I had to leave.”

— Kali Uchis, 2020 interview with Billboard

“Love is love. Happy Pride to everyone.”

— Don Toliver, 2022 tweet

Two voices, one theme: identity is negotiated, not inherited. Uchis defines belonging on her terms — Colombia, America, bisexual, mother — and lets her partners and parents find their own way to that definition.

The takeaway

Kali Uchis occupies a rare position: a Grammy-winning artist whose personal story — bicultural upbringing, teen expulsion, motherhood — is woven directly into her commercial success. For the fan trying to place her: she is not simply a “Latin artist” or an “R&B singer” but someone who uses genre, language, and identity as materials, not constraints. For the music industry watching: she proved that a bilingual, bisexual, bicultural artist can top charts without diluting any of those labels. The consequence is clear: the next wave of Latin artists entering the US market will be measured not by how well they assimilate, but by how unapologetically they bring their full selves.

Frequently asked questions