Khalid Artistfacts

Khalid song list

Khalid Artistfacts

February 11, 1998
Born Khalid Donnel Robinson, Khalid is an R&B and pop singer-songwriter who was still in high school when he released his first single, "Location," just in time for his senior prom in 2016. "Young, Dumb and Broke" followed a year later, and both singles reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, generating a buzz for his 2017 debut album, American Teen. By the end of the year, the album earned a platinum certification for selling over 1 million units in the US, and, in 2018, a pair of Grammy Award nominations for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best R&B Song for "Location."
Because both of his parents served in the military, Khalid, who was born at the Fort Stewart Army base in Hinesville, Georgia, moved around a lot as a kid. He lived in Kentucky, New York, and Germany before he finally ended up in El Paso, Texas, in the summer of 2015 just before starting his senior year at Americas High School. Although he hadn't been there long, the singer immediately adopted El Paso as his hometown and credits the school for supporting his budding music career. His classmates even elected him as Prom King and Most Likely To Go Platinum.
Khalid's own songs were enough to make him famous among teens who connected with his rhythmic reflections on loneliness and unrequited love, but several successful collaborations amplified his star power. In between his first two albums, American Teen and Free Spirit (2019), he showed up on hit singles like Logic's "1-800-273-8255," Calvin Harris' "Rollin," Marshmello's "Silence," and Shawn Mendes' "Youth." He also teamed up with Normani on "Love Lies," Billie Eilish on "Lovely," and Benny Blanco and Halsey on "Eastside." Shortly after Free Spirit dropped, he featured on Ed Sheeran's "Beautiful People."
In 2019, Khalid established the record as the first artist to dominate the top five spots of the Billboard R&B Songs chart with the singles "Better," "Talk," "My Bad," "Saturday Nights," and "Outta My Head."
In 2024, Khalid was forced to come out as gay when he was outed on Twitter by Hugo Almonte, a fellow male artist who claimed to have had a romantic encounter with the singer. "I got outted and the world still continues to turn," Khalid told his followers on the platform. "Let's get this straight (lmao) I am not ashamed of my sexuality! In reality it ain't nobodies business! But I am okay with me."

The revelation opened up new possibilities for the singer, who no longer had to hide behind a veil of ambiguity in his music. "I'm singing in a different pocket of my soul because there's no fear in my heart. I'm just like, 'I'm here. I'm alive," he told GQ about his After The Sun Goes Down album in 2025. "It comes from me embracing my sexuality. It's almost like it opened a whole new register creatively."
Khalid was named Best New Artist at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, winning against fellow nominees Noah Cyrus, Kodak Black, Julia Michaels, SZA, and Young M.A. He was also considered in the same category at the 2018 Grammy Awards but lost to Canadian artist Alessia Cara, who sang with him on Logic's "1-800-273-8255."
Khalid may be an R&B singer, but he's a big fan of '70s rock bands, in particular Fleetwood Mac and their smokey-voiced singer Stevie Nicks. In fact, Khalid's musical taste is so varied that he had a hard time picking which genre to pursue. "There's been a time where I was like, I wanna be a folk singer, no, I wanna sing soul, I want to sing classical music, I want to sing R&B, I want to be on Broadway. I just wanna sing," he told PopSugar in 2018.
Khalid was in second grade when his father was killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. As an adult, he still struggles with the loss but turns to music to process his grief. His 2025 song "Hurt People" is about not letting his pain turn him into a hurtful person.
Although Khalid has collaborated with a number of rappers, including Swae Lee on "The Ways" for the 2018 Black Panther soundtrack, he never attempted to spit out rhymes himself until he rapped for the first time on "Breathe" from his 2024 album, Sincere.
Khalid wrote his very first song, "Saved," in 2015, which ended up on his debut album. Around this time, the 17-year-old loved to sing Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" and wanted to write a song that conveyed the same intensity of emotion.
Over the years Khalid changed his songwriting method from quietly tapping out lyrics in his notes app to improvising lyrics while he's singing. "I think I could go into the booth and freestyle a song from top to bottom," he explained on the Behind The Wall podcast in 2025.

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