It’s said that a pregnancy is a blessing, and that couldn’t be more on point for Kali Uchis, who scores her first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart with Orquídeas, as the new album debuts atop the list dated Jan. 27. The set’s roaring start arrives after the Colombian artist announced she was expecting her first child with Don Toliver in the music video for “Tu Corazón Es Mío” on Jan. 11.
“Very grateful to have the opportunity to keep growing every release and very grateful to my community,” Uchis tells Billboard.
Orquídeas, Uchis’ second Spanish-language album, was released Jan. 12 via Geffen/IGA, the first day of the tracking week ending Jan. 18. According to Luminate, the 14-track set starts with 69,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. – her biggest week ever.
Of Orquídeas’ first-week sum, streaming activity delivers 39,000 units, a figure equating to 51 million official on-demand streams of the album’s tracks – her largest streaming week ever for an album. Traditional album sales contribute 31,000 (her largest sales week yet), while the remaining balance stems from a negligible amount of track-equivalent album units. On Top Latin Albums, one unit equals to one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.
With Orquídeas’ No. 1 entrance, Uchis bests her only career and first top 10 entry on Top Latin Albums: Sin Miedo (Del Amoy y Otros Demonios), her first Spanish-language full-lenghth, peaked at No. 3 in March 2021. The set delivered the eight-week champ “Telepatía” on Hot Latin Songs and her highest-ranking entry on the overall Billboard Hot 100 (No. 25 high).
Orquídeas concurrently gifts Uchis her second No. 1 entry on Latin Pop Albums, after Sin Miedo ruled for 11 weeks between March 2021 and July 2022. In total her first all-Spanish album has held in the top 10 for 165 weeks since its debut, encompassing the entire stay on the chart.
Elsewhere, Orquídeas begins at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard 200, Uchis’ best performance there, following Red Moon in Venus (No. 4 high, March 2023), and an equal No. 1 debut on Top Albums Sales and Vinyl Albums. On the latter, it becomes the first Spanish-language album by a woman to debut atop the ranking. Bad Bunny is the only other act to debut at No. 1 with a Spanish-language album.
Orquídeas also spawns 12 debuts on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart including the No. 1 start of “Igual Que Un Ángel,” with Peso Pluma. “I honestly wasn’t expecting that! Uchis adds. “I wrote and recorded the song a while ago and was shocked and excited that Peso wanted to jump on that one in particular because I love encouraging artists to step out of their comfort zone when creating.”
With those new debuts, “Labios Mordidos,” with Karol G, rising from No. 36 to No. 14, and the re-entry of “Muñekita,” with El Alfa and JT, at No. 36, the complete album takes over the chart which blends airplay, streaming data, and digital sales.
About which song Uchis relates with the most, she adds: “I deeply relate to all of them because I write all my own music, but I would say my favorite song is probably “¿Cómo Así?” because I feel it’s the most unique.”
Thanks to the new album and standout cuts, Uchis returns to the Billboard Artist 100 chart at No. 2, surpassing her No. 6 position in March 2023. The list measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
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