Kali Uchis Leads Global Debuts With Tik Tok-Powered ‘Telepatía’

Another week, another Tik Tok-aided debut on the Billboard global charts. “Telepatía” by Kali Uchis arrives at No. 29 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 61 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart (both dated March 6), the highest new entry on each tally.

In the tracking week ending Feb. 25, “Telepatía” earned 24.2 million streams and sold 1,000 downloads worldwide, according to MRC Data.

“Telepatía” is from November’s Sin Mideo (del Amor y Otros Demonios), the first Spanish-language album from Uchis, whose primarily English-language LP Isolation was released in 2018. The song was building before making sharp increases in February. Most recently, it has logged back-to-back global gains of 498% in sales a week ago and 201% this week, and 205% and 178% in streams.

“Telepatía” scored 76% of its worldwide sales and 41% of its global streams from the U.S. in the latest tracking week, far more than the week’s averages of 53% and 24%, respectively. Overperforming in the U.S. is more typical for English-language songs by American acts. “Telepatía,” however, is sung primarily in Spanish (with additional lyrics in English) and Uchis is Colombian. (If we remove English-language songs from the equation, that average of 24% in U.S. streams plummets to 11%, turning the 41% domestic share for “Telepatía” into even more of an anomaly.)

Among songs on both global charts this week that are not entirely sung in English, “Telepatía” boasts the highest share of U.S. streams (41%), followed by “Te Mudaste” by Bad Bunny, with 25%.

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Before the song’s Tik Tok explosion over the last month, “Telepatía” was behaving more like a typical Latin hit, with 50% of its sales and 21% of its streams from the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 11. Over the course of two weeks, that 50% share of U.S. sales has grown to 74% and then 76%, while its streams soared from 21% to 39% to 41%, suggesting that Tik Tok’s influence is greater within the U.S.

Of course, Uchis’ chart history also leans domestic, as she established her bona fides with Isolation, which peaked at No. 32 on the U.S.-based Billboard 200.

Sin Mideo debuts at No. 77 on the Billboard 200 this week, while surging 10-3 on the Top Latin Albums chart. “Telepatía” enters the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 54, marking Uchis’ first entry as a lead artist, and shoots 10-2 on the Hot Latin Songs chart.