Kali Uchis, Kim Petras & Victoria Monét Cover COSMOPOLITAN’s Spring 2024 Issue ‘The Sound of Now’

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Presenting The Sound of Now collection. Thanks to COSMOPOLITAN’s three Spring 2024 Issue cover stars—Kim Petras, Kali Uchis, and Victoria Monét—the future of music looks like something entirely new. More original, more exciting, more f*ck-yes-put-this-on-my-playlist right-now. Which is exactly what each of them has been manifesting all along. 

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Whatever You Do, Don’t Call Kali Uchis “Niche”

Take over the music world in two languages? She’s been there, done that. The chart-topping, language-spanning artist—and Cosmo cover star—isn’t chasing just Grammys or records anymore: She’s going after what really matters.

• Kali on a viral interview where a reporter said he knew “all about that Spanglish” because of his Mexican husband and then proceeded to mispronounce the name of one of her songs: “It was a microaggression. So many people told me I handled that really well. Yes, it was annoying, but it almost didn’t affect me because I’m so used to it. He didn’t have ill will or anything. He was just attempting to bridge the gap between him and I. It’s just very strange to have your ethnicity, essentially, be a genre.”

• Kali on staying focused on moving forward, already working on her fifth and most “sad girl” album: “There’s gonna be no collaborations,” she says. “I want to do a whole album that’s just really, really vulnerable. It’s the most existential I’ve ever been.”

• Kali hinting about a new project with her boyfriend, rapper Don Toliver: “It’s always nice to get his opinion because he’s, like, an OG Kuchi himself.”

• Kali on fellow Cosmo cover star Victoria Monet being an example of how to be a working mom in the industry: “When you get pregnant, a lot of people assume that’s your retirement, so seeing Victoria never stop hitting her peak is so inspiring.”  

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Say Goodbye to the Many Alter Egos of Kim Petras

She’s perfected the art of sex-positive pop. But after a massive year (featuring: a Grammy! a world tour! a song with a billion streams!), the Cosmo cover star is ready to shed her stage personas and make vulnerable music that reflects her roots.

• Kim on the many personas she’s had throughout her career: “I’m always looking to free myself of things. I think that’s where the alter egos came from. You can tell a lot about me by looking at the characters I made up.”

• Kim on the rumor she learned English by watching Britney Spears music videos: “I knew how to record on VHS, and I’d rewind her back to watch again and study what she would say. I’d write her words down until I got to English in school, and that helped me understand her.”

• Kim on Paris Hilton’s early support: “She was one of my first believers. She said, ‘You? You’re going to do things.’”

• Kim on how her alter ego Slut Pop Kim was a true personal breakthrough, helping her learn to love her body as a trans woman and channel that into music: “She is the Kim who’s not afraid of anything sexual and really not ashamed of her body and really not limiting herself. That’s something I aspire to be. For me, growing up trans, all of that has been a big deal. Am I supposed to feel sexy? Does anyone think I’m sexy? ‘No, you’re the weird school freak’ is buried into you if you’re a trans kid. It felt freeing for me to talk about sex as if I never struggled with it.”

• Kim on her “hopeless” childhood: “I want to let you in to the darker moments of my life. My childhood felt very hopeless. I felt so outside of society and so made into an object because my identity was constantly talked about. It felt like I had to deal with a lot of things that kids don’t have to deal with until they’re much older. Now, I see the beauty in the darkness. And so for my future project, I’m going to try to talk about that.”

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The Many Manifestations of Victoria Monét

In the midst of a career-defining moment, the Grammy-nominated musician and Cosmo cover star is ready to speak about the doubters, the Ariana Grande comparisons, and the power of persistence.

• Victoria on MTV allegedly saying that it was “too early in her story” for her to perform at the 2023 VMAs: “I try not to take it personally. Someone who doesn’t have the full scope of this story might think, It’s too early. But people who are in the know know the songwriting. They know the girl group I was in in 2009. They know I was an independent artist, supporting myself financially on tours. I had to wait for this big moment, and when I say ‘wait,’ I don’t mean sitting on my hands—I had to climb up a hill for a really long time. It’s giving Mount Everest.”

• Victoria on writing her hit song “On My Mama” to deal with postpartum depression: “While writing ‘On My Mama,’ I was just trying to transform my thoughts. It’s a crazy juxtaposition: You’re supposed to be in one of the happiest moments of your life, but you’re sad and you can’t really explain it or fake it. It feels like a positive affirmation song to me. I want that subconsciously with a lot of my music.”

• Victoria on the internet accusing collaborator Ariana Grande of stealing her sound: “It’s weird that people are comparing [Ariana Grande and I] and are surprised that a song would sound like something that I wrote—because I did write it. If the roles were reversed, if Ariana was a songwriter first, you may find me trying to hit a whistle tone or something. It’s a moot point to me, so I just let the internet do their thing.”

• Victoria on staying focused on doing more of her thing: When people are singing along to my music, I want them to be manifesting great things in their lives. You can sing or speak your way through hard times and turn a new leaf.”

The Spring 2024 issue of Cosmopolitan—The Sound of Now Issue—hits newsstands nationwide on February 13.

[Photo Credit: Chrisean Rose for Cosmopolitan Magazine]

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