_{Image Credits: Daniel Sannwald}

“The orchid is the national flower of Colombia, and we have more species of orchid than anywhere on earth,” Uchis says. “I always felt distinctly intrigued and magnetized by the flower. This album is inspired by the timeless, eerie, mystic, striking, graceful and sensual allure of the orchid. With this vast scope of fresh energy, I wish to re-define the way we look at Latinas in music.”

Her fans, the self-proclaimed ‘Kuchis’ ( no, the phonetic pronunciation is no accident), got a snippet of this reimagining in August with Muñekita. In the single, her signature soft vocals are braided with the fast pulsing rhythm of Dominican dembow singer El Alfa and City Girls’ JT’s sharp rap.

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Living between Virginia and Colombia, Uchis first garnered attention with her mixtape Drunken Bubble in 2012, which she wrote and recorded on her laptop the night before uploading it to DatPiff. Despite her inmigrant’s family condemning her career choice, she’s since become a Billboard Latin Music Award winner, toured all over the world, and collaborated with major artists like SZA, Gorillaz, Jorja Smith, Diplo, Major Lazer, and Snoop Dogg. Her festival sets always gather devoted throngs, everywhere from Tropicalia and Governors Ball to Austin City Limits, and Lollapalooza. Uchis’ Coachella headlining show this April was even one of the event’s top-billed performances.

Image Credits: Daniel Sannwald

Uchis loves to explore the diaspora and female archetypes she was raised with through her art. In a blend of Spanish and English, the singer constantly reconceptualising what it means to be a Latinx woman through spirituality and stereotypes. Whether it’s via deities like Isis and Aphrodite or characters like the red-lipped femme fatale and the innocent woodland fairy, her transcending sound inspires us to embrace our divine femininity. The singer’s last exploration of love and womanhood, Red Moon In Venus, became her first Top 10 charting album and was featured in Best of 2023 lists from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Complex, and more. This combined with her signature silky vocals and soft melodies made her 2021 single ‘Telepatía’ become Billboard Hot 100’s longest-running Spanish song by a solo act this decade with a 23-week streak.

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At 29 years old, Kali Uchis has solidified herself as the sensual Latinx mother of R&B and soul. Orquídeas promises a new side of her– a fantasy we for one can’t wait to hear.

You can pre-save the album here:

https://kaliuchis.lnk.to/OrquideasPR

_{Words By Alexia De Las Haras}

_{^{Header Image By Daniel Sannwald}}

The post Kali Uchis Announces The Release Of Her Long-Awaited Fourth Album appeared first on Voir Fashion.

Her new album continually sits at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, holding its position for three weeks already as the top new album release. She also sits in the second spot for Billboard’s Artist 100 and is noted as having the hottest R&B song at the moment. Truly a testament to her phenomenally poetic lyricisms and industry-norm subversions.  

SOS assumedly sits within the landscape as an R&B/alt R&B album, however, SZA’s influences prove to stem from a variety of genres making the album an eclectic blend of sounds – with songs rooted in pop punk, rap and ballad-like pop music. 

Her confessional lyrics and soulful initiative to the genre have made SOS a prolific album of 2022 despite its late release in the year. 

SZA tells the Rolling Stones in a podcast interview for Rolling Stone Music Now that she was pejoratively apprehensive to release her album to the public, with fears in the reception of her as an artist – as a non-conformist creator in a rapid-fire strictly-traditional industry. 

Her fears can ultimately be debunked in the actuality of the reception of the album. Songs like ‘Kill Bill’ currently sit at around 150 million streams on Spotify, despite only being out since December. Surely this is indication enough that public appraisal was indeed laudatory?

The reverent adoration for her new album has virally sent it to platforms like TikTok, with snippets from her newly released songs as the backing to transitional trends/ and emerging new lyric-related trends, e.g. ‘Good Days’, ‘I Hate U’ and ‘Kill Bill’ have all generated a mass hype on the platform. It is apparent that the emotion behind the lyrics “I might kill my ex, not the best idea, his new girlfriend’s next, how’d I get here” within ‘Kill Bill’ has prompted a trend in which people lip sync to the audio. The viral capabilities of platforms like TikTok have meant the continual relevance of SZA’s album in the charts. 

A viral video that surfaced recently was a TikTok vox pop with an elderly woman in the subway somewhere in the US, she is asked to name her favourite new album and she speaks fondly of SOS and specifically the heart-wrenching meaning behind SZA’s song ‘Kill Bill’ – this generated a lot of traction on TikTok sparking positive comments of the community surrounding the new release. 

Likewise, raking in around 65k views on TikTok, the artist who animated SZAs album art for alternate cover renditions went viral time lapsing his creative process. 

Her inspiration for the album has many roots. Partially fuelled by her involvement with public ridicule but also through motifs of lost love. It is prolific to note that she sits as a woman of colour within a light-skin masculine-dominated genre and thus this album is a metaphorical departure from the “nice girl” archetype that is assumed of her. 

Following the release of her album, SZA is set to embark on her first North American arena tour, in February of this year. 

The artist has stated that this tour is her way of giving her audience a show that they deserve, whether that means playing a setlist of unreleased songs they’ve heard snippets of on Twitter or deep cuts of released songs. This 2023 tour is SZA’s method of appreciation after the long-anticipated (five years!) wait from her loyal fanbase. Are you as excited as we are to see what she does with the extended album version?

_{Words By Hannah Doherty}

^{Header Image : @sza Instagram}

The post ‘SOS’! SZA Is Killing It With Her Third Week Atop The Billboard 200 appeared first on Voir Fashion.

Firstly, we need to talk about Diddy! He brought so much joy to the stage last night, from being an excellent host to performing multiple hits with artists such as Teyana Taylor and Jack Harlow. 

Speaking of performances, there were many incredible moments on the stage last night. Latto brought all the energy to the BBMA’s with her performances of ‘Big Energy’. 

Becky G delivered a stellar performance of ‘Mamiii’ and ‘Baile Con Mi Ex’, as she wore a sultry black leather and lace ensemble.

Megan Thee Stallion took to the stage in custom Mugler, bringing us a medley of ‘Sweetest Pie’ and her latest sassy release ‘Plan B’.

Of course, the main event of the BBMA’s is the awarding, and several artists won big last night. Drake annihilated categories such as; Top Artist, Top Male Artist and Top Rap Album… just to name a few! Whereas Olivia Rodrigo took home many awards including; Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Female Artist and many more. Other big winners included Doja Cat, BTS, Taylor Swift, Ye and Silk Sonic.

Janet Jackson presented Mary J. Blige with the prestigious Icon award, delivering an inspirational speech in which she went on to say;

“It takes a lot of time, hardwork and surviving trial and error to achieve greatness. What an icon means to me is overcoming obstacles to achieve the unthinkable, and being widely admired for having an influence over a multitude of people. That is what I’ve always represented” 

There’s no denying that great music was celebrated last night, but there were also some beautiful fashion looks that we need to talk about!

Doja Cat

Stunning the awards last night was the incredible Doja Cat, who wore an other worldly Schiaparelli design from head to toe.

Chloe Bailey

Chloe Bailey dominated in this all-black leather look, accessorised with gold jewellery to add a goddess touch to this strong appearance.

Megan Thee Stallion

As per usual, Meg stuck to her hot girl agenda and wore a daring, seductive outfit. Complete with cut out detailing and transparent jewellery, this look was innovative and eye catching.

Latto

Latto went all out with her look, appearing equally majestic and glamorous.

Teyana Taylor 

Bringing the grunge our way last night was Teyana Taylor, who wore low waisted leather trousers, with a black bralette and super cool shades. Taking the look to the next level, Teyana added exaggerated silver chain accessories.

Kali Uchis

Kali was our lady in red, as she wore a gorgeous red gown with the cutest scarlet bag to add a sweet touch to her hot look.

Becky G

Prior to her all black performance fit, Becky G lit up the red carpet with an angelic lilac mini dress complete with all the feather and sequin detailing we could wish for!

Megan Fox & Machine Gun Kelly

Couple of the moment Machine Gun Kelly & Megan Fox brought all the seductiveness to the red carpet, as they both wore all-black outfits with silver crystallised detailing to add a pop of sparkle.

Anitta

Looking sweet as ever, Anitta wore a pink chainmail floor-length gown courtesy of the hottest collection around; Fence (Fendi X Versace).

Kylie, Travis & Stormi

Bringing the cuteness to the carpet was Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott, as they brought their daughter Stormi along to watch her father take to the main stage. Kylie’s figure hugging dress was courtesy of Balmain.

Words By Nadia Clasper

_{Graphic Credit: Gerasim Kutsarov}

The post Everything You Need To Know About Last Night’s Billboard Music Awards appeared first on Voir Fashion.

Under golden lights and sparkles, with a JUICY stage of capital letters in the style of the best Broadway shows, this 24-year-old girl brought us a presentation full of elegance, cabaret, and sensuality.

The artist nominated for best R&B song for ‘Juicy’ ft Tyga, surprised us at the last edition of the Billboard Music Awards with a presentation inspired by the 1920s. Her movements and style, taken from the film, gave her an original and catchy touch to this show version of his songs ‘Juicy’, ‘Say So’ and, ‘Like That’

Her performance impressed more than one with praise in her social media by great artists such as Cristina Aguilera and with a post on Instagram of her presentation with more than 409 thousand likes and two thousand comments.

Doja Cat- Juicy/Say So/Like That (BBMA performance via Doja Cat)

Along with dancers with sultry, stylized female touches, Doja Cat gifted us with an iconic choreography to the 1972 hit Broadway by cinematographer Bob Fosse. Her confident and sensual style captured the red and white lights backed by a wooden chair that highlighted her potential.

Under the creative styling of Brett Alan Nelson, with a Roxie-style outfit by Renee Zellweger with the typical bob with waves to the guide of the 20s plus a fringed and silver sequin dress with sparkling touches and lustful and stunning crystals as her talent.

Doja Cat Interview 2020 Billboard Music Awards 2020 via StageRightSecrets

Not only her cabaret-style left everyone hypnotized, but also her awards entrance outfit, a Georges Hobeika mermaid cut dress and transparent mesh with silver and violet crystals by Lorraine Schwartz that exalted her figure complemented with Amina Muaddi shoes along with to a hair styled by Jared “JStayReady” Henderson pumpkin colour, worthy of the Autumn 2020 season, and a makeup custom by Adam Burrell in warm tones and peach to match.

With a great explosive ending, Doja Cat closed its presentation with a memorable show… we keep snapping our fingers with this version and we want more!

Words by Cami Martinez

The post Doja Cat Brings the 20s Musical Theatre Dreams to Life appeared first on Voir Fashion.

Even though there was no one around to witness this year’s Billboard Music Awards, there were still many show-stopping moments throughout the show, from Post Malone sweeping the floor with the most awards of the night to some incredible performances, we’re here to let you know all the talking points.

It was no surprise that Post Malone had won the most awards at this years ceremony considering the year he has had, he picked up nine awards overall while taking home the top artist prize to end the night and winning nine awards overall. Following Post Malone was Khalid who picked up five awards.

The ceremony opened with host Kelly Clarkson providing us with a tear-jerking monologue. “Tonight is about the way music touches us all because music connects with us in so many ways. No matter who you are, it moves us, sometimes Literally,” said Clarkson, adding “We dance. We sing. We cry, like I do often. It brings back those good memories and it also helps us make new ones”.

Kelly Clarkson- Higher Love via Kelly Clarkson Youtube Channel

As always with award shows, often the looks take the spotlight and this year’s awards are no exception. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping was Lil Nas X’s, sporting a light green Gucci suit in a snakeskin print, while giving us major Prince vibes with his new curly bangs.

Post Malone continued to be the star of the show with one of the best performances of the night at a “top secret” location. Parading around an industrial yard stage, Post performed his smash hit ‘Circles’ and then his Tyla Yaweh collab “Tommy Lee”, with Yaweh himself, which made for one of the most electrifying performances of the night.

Circles/Tommy Lee ft Tyla Yaweh BBMA 2020 via Post Malone Youtube

Some of the other captivating moments of the night included Doja Cat embracing musical theatre with a burlesque-inspired performance. Doja sported a throwback dress and wig with an old-Hollywood sense of showmanship. Lizzo provided a big statement during her acceptance speech for top song sales artist while wearing a dress covered with the repeated word, “VOTE”. She then went on to say “I’ve been thinking a lot about suppression, and the voices that refuse to be suppressed,” later adding “and I wonder, would I be standing here right now, if it wasn’t for the big black women who refused to be suppressed?”.

Doja Cat- Juicy/Say So/Like That (BBMAs Performance)

The unofficial award for most emotional performance will most certainly be going to John Legend. He performed a solo ‘Never Break’ on piano, the singer dedicated the performance to his wife Chrissy Teigen after their recent personal tragedy.

En Vogue closed out the awards with a rendition of anti-prejudice anthem ‘Free Your Mind’ as the group celebrated their 30th anniversary. Original members Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron were joined by Rhona Bennett as they performed one of their greatest hits and at one-point, Childish Gambino’s This Is America was sampled as black-and-white footage of civil rights marches played on screens behind the band members which provided a poignant and hard-hitting closing to the ceremony.

En Vogue Perform “Free Your Mind” 2020 BBMA’S video via Top Tier

Words by Chris Saunders

#2020

The post Watch the Performances and Catch Up on All That Went Down at the Billboard Music Awards 2020 appeared first on Voir Fashion.