Karly Loaiza was born on July 17, 1993, in Pereira, Colombia. At the age of 7, she migrated with her family to Alexandria, Virginia. Uchis would write and produce most of her own music. She was introduced to music at a young age, when raised in the Alexandria school system, culminating in graduating T. C. Williams High School, and began playing saxophone and piano as a teenager. She experimented with music production and video editing in high school at T. C. Williams, with financial help from her long time friend Alana Alvarez (Uchis is Alvarez's two eldest children's godmother, Victor Sanchez and Samari Sanchez) together the two released her official debut mixtape, titled Drunken Babble on August 1, 2012. The mixtape was described as "genre-defying" and was noted for its influences from doo-wop, reggae, and early-2000s R&B.

Uchis began collaborating with rapper Snoop Dogg on the song "On Edge", from his 2014 mixtape That's My Work 3. In February 2015, she released her first studio project, which is her first EP, titled Por Vida. The EP was also released for free on her website. Por Vida features production from Alex Epton, Diplo, Bunx, Tyler, the Creator, Kaytranada, BadBadNotGood, and Caleb Stone.

In October 2015, Kali Uchis embarked on her first tour with Leon Bridges, touring through the United States and parts of Canada for a month.

Singer-Songwriter, Musician, Female Singer, Pop singer, Indie, Indie Pop Music Producer, Producers and Directors, Music, Entertainment Industry, Artists, Musical Performance,