Khalid Robison is a new singer-songwriter, who writes and releases relatable music which attracts his large teenage following. He debuted his career with the song “Location” he released in August 2016, which made it to the top two on the US R&B charts. He then came out with his first album the following March called “American Teen”, which flew to the top of the US Charts (20 Facts You Should Know). Khalid has already appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and “Ellen” and he continues to land incredible gigs with his music (Chang). Khalid has become an extremely successful R&B singer since he started, but that is not always what his life used to be like.       

Khalid is the son of a Mother in the Military, so he moved around a lot in his teen years. From Germany, to New York, and then finally to El Paso, Texas where he finished high school (Chang). He dealt with a lot of loneliness due to his constant change in location, which he says, motivated him to start writing his music as a way to cope with everything. Khalid suffered a car accident that made him feel as if he needed to do something new with his life (Khalid Remembers being Ostracized). He said that he was inspired by his mom, who is also a singer, to begin songwriting in the hospital.

The song that landed Khalid a manager was “Saved”. “I wrote Saved as a form of therapy, to get over the fact that I had moved and lost so much of myself,” Khalid stated (Smyth). “Saved” is a soft guitar ballad that he wrote about saving someone’s number on his phone, as a way to communicate with an ex-girlfriend (Smyth). Khalid then, finally debuted his first album “American Teen” with 15 songs. The star song of the album was “Young, Dumb & Broke”. Khalid mentioned that even though he might not be young, dumb and broke now, he definitely was when he wrote the song, and he feels like it is important for people know what he came up from. Khalid figured out the name for his album when he posted an Instagram picture with the caption “American Teen” He said that he realized that it was the perfect name, that matched the mood of the album (Madison III). His debut album has now earned him multiple Grammy nominations since the release of his first song, “Location” (Khalid Remembers being Ostracized).

Khalid has been tagged with “voice of the generation” title, after his album “American Teen” became a Platinum Seller and the tenth biggest album of 2017 (Smyth). Khalid admits that he realizes how crazy it is that people look up to him and see him as a symbol for “the voice of the youth” (Madison III). Khalid gives the credit of all of his Grammy nominations to the first songs he ever wrote. He says that his first songs were “voice memos and songs that were clearly recorded off different mics”, which just makes him curious for what the future will bring (Smyth).

Works Cited

Chang, Richard S. "Khalid: 'Focus on Individuality' Led to Success." Red Bull, 6 June 2018. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.

"Khalid Remembers Being Ostracized by High School Classmates Because of His Success." Hot 1039 Fm. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.

Madison III, Ira. "Khalid Is Here to save the Soul of America." GQ, 22 Jan. 2018. Accessed 21 Mar. 2019.

Smyth, David. "Khalid Interview: I Didn't Want to Live with This Sadness." Go London, 9 Feb. 2018. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.

"20 Facts You Should Know about Khalid." Captal Xtra. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.