In April 2017, he guest performed alongside Alessia Cara on Logic's hit single "1-800-273-8255," which earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Song of the Year. In 2018, Robinson released the hit singles "Love Lies" (with Normani) and "Eastside" (with Benny Blanco and Halsey), both of which achieved the record for longest-charting songs within the Mainstream Top 40 chart and reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Later that year, he released his third top-ten single "Better," which preceded his debut extended play (EP) Suncity. In April 2019, he released his second studio album Free Spirit, which debuted atop the Billboard 200. Its lead single, "Talk" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100—remaining his highest-charting song to date—and earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year.
Khalid began writing and creating music in high school; he posted his early works to SoundCloud. Shortly after graduating from Americas High School, Khalid reached number two on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists chart in July 2016. His single "Location" began charting, which led to his being featured in many publications, including Billboard,[6]Yahoo!,[7]BuzzFeed,[8] and Rolling Stone.[9] With production from Syk Sense, Tunji Ige, and Smash David, "Location" finished the year 2016 at number 20 on the US Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart[6] and reached the Top 10 on the US Hot R&B Songs chart on January 21, 2017.[10] The music video for "Location" premiered on The Fader's website.[11] The album's second single "Young Dumb & Broke" became a sleeper hit, becoming a hit at rhythmic formats and crossing over to pop radio into early 2018.
In January 2017, Alina Baraz's single "Electric", featuring Khalid, was released.[12] His collaboration with Brasstracks, called "Whirlwind", was part of the Yours Truly & Adidas Originals Songs from Scratch series, and received over 700,000 SoundCloud plays.[13] Khalid contributed uncredited vocals to Kendrick Lamar's song "The Heart Part 4", released on March 24, 2017.[14][15] On April 28, 2017, Logic released the single "1-800-273-8255", which featured Khalid and Alessia Cara; the single peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Khalid's highest-charting single.[16]
In 2017, Khalid won a VMA Award for Best New Artist.[21] Khalid made his television debut performing "Location" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 15, 2017, backed by the Roots.[22] His song "Angels" was featured on the ABC drama series Grey's Anatomy in the episode entitled "Don't Stop Me Now", which aired April 27, 2017.[23] In September 2018, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo Friday presented Khalid with the key to the City of El Paso.[24]
Khalid's next single was a collaboration with American DJ Marshmello titled "Silence", which was released on August 11, 2017, via RCA Records.[25] The song appeared on the Top 200 in over 28 countries. It topped the Dance charts in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and charted in the Top 10 of more than fifteen countries such as Germany, Sweden and Norway. It also appeared on the year-end charts of Hungary, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Additionally, it was certified 5× Platinum by the RIAA and platinum or multiplatinum in many countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden, Australia, and others.
2018–2019: Suncity and Free Spirit
Khalid's song "The Ways" with rapper Swae Lee was featured in the Marvel film Black Panther. As of February 23, 2018, the song peaked at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.[26] In 2017, he collaborated with Lorde, SZA, and Post Malone on Lorde's "Homemade Dynamite" remix. He released a duet with singer Normani, called "Love Lies", recorded for the Love, Simon film soundtrack, which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018.[27] "Love Lies" was each artist's first number one on the US Pop Songs chart, and finished in the top 20 of the 2018 Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart.
In May 2018, he wrote "Youth" in collaboration with Canadian artist Shawn Mendes. The song was featured on Mendes' self titled album and contains references to the social and political climate at that time. Mendes and Khalid performed "Youth" at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards on May 20, 2018, as a tribute to the victims of gun violence. The performance featured the show choir from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.[28]
Khalid wrote and provided vocals for DJ/producer Martin Garrix's song "Ocean", released through Stmpd Rcrds on June 15, 2018. It peaked at number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 5 on the Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and finished at number 16 on its 2018-year end chart, then number 81 the next year.
He collaborated with Billie Eilish on the song "Lovely", which was sampled multiple times on Goodbye & Good Riddance, the debut album of rapper Juice Wrld. It was also played on the popular Netflix series 13 Reasons Why in Season 2 Episode 13. In July 2018, he was featured alongside Halsey on Benny Blanco's debut single "Eastside".[29] The song charted in the Billboard Hot 100's top ten and reached number one on the US Pop Songs chart, after a record 30-week climb. He also released a song called "Better" on September 14, the first day of two hometown shows.[30] The song topped the Rhythmic Songs airplay ranking and charted in the top five at pop radio.
In February 2019, Khalid released the single "Talk", and he made his debut on Saturday Night Live on March 9, 2019, performing "Talk" and "Better".[34] His second studio album Free Spirit was released on April 5, 2019, along with an accompanying short film. It debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 202,000 album-equivalent units (including 85,000 pure album sales) in its first week, becoming Khalid's first US number-one album.[35]
On April 20, 2019, Khalid made history by becoming the first and only artist to occupy the entire top 5 of the Billboard R&B Songs chart.[36][37]
On April 25, 2019, Billboard magazine reported that since March 2018, Khalid had landed a 59-week straight streak of hits (and counting) on the Hot 100 since his Normani collaboration "Love Lies" debuted on the chart. He charted 12 tracks (both solo hits and features) on the Hot 100 throughout the last year.[38]
In order to promote the album, Khalid embarked on his fourth concert tour titled the Free Spirit World Tour which will visit North America, Europe and Oceania on May 18, 2019, which is set to conclude on December 5, 2019.[39][40][41]
Following the release of Free Spirit, Khalid was reported to have become the biggest global artist on Spotify, hitting 50.4 million monthly listeners on the streaming platform, and subsequently surpassing Ariana Grande.[42][43]
In October 2019, Khalid and Major Lazer released a single titled "Trigger" which was also featured on Death Stranding's soundtrack.
2020–present: Scenic Drive and Everything Is Changing
Prior to the album's release, Khalid released his first mixtape Scenic Drive on December 3, 2021.[47] On November 20, 2021, Khalid previewed a new song titled "Backseat", which serves as the third track on the mixtape.[48][47] His next song, tiled "Silver Platter", was featured on the soundtrack album for the 2023 film Barbie.[49]
In April 2024, He released a single titled "Please Don't Fall In Love With Me"
Khalid Khalid discography Khalid (singer) Khalid ibn al-Walid Khalid of Saudi Arabia Khalid Abdullah Khalid Al-Faisal Free Spirit (Khalid album) Rauf Khalid Khalid Said Khalid Mahmood Khalid Ibrahim Khalid Al-Balochi Khalid Mohamed Khalid Khurshid Khalid Ismail Khalid Hamid Khalid ibn Yazid Al-Khalid/VT-1A Noraseela Mohd Khalid Muhamad Khalid Jamlus Khalid Yasin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Khalid Aziz Bani Khalid (tribe) Khalid Abdul Samad Khalid Khan Khalid Al Qassimi Ridouane Khalid Frank Khalid Khalid bin Salman Al Saud Khalid Sharahili Faisal bin Khalid Al Saud (born 1954) Khâlid-i Shahrazuri …
Khalid Eisa Khalid Shameem Wynne Khalid Mahmud Khalid El-Bied Khalid al-Qasri Khalid Boutaïb Khalid Baba Bandar bin Khalid Al Saud (born 1965) Khalid bin Barghash of Zanzibar Muhammad Khalid Khalid Abdulrahman Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud (1937–2021) Khalid Akhtar Khalid bin Saud Al Saud Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid PNS Khalid Khalid Muneer Asadullah Khalid Khalid Mehmood Soomro Saud bin Khalid Al Saud Fawziyya Abu Khalid Khalid Zahedi Khalid Mushir Khalid El-Boumlili Muhammad ibn Khalid Khalid Sulayman Jaydh Al Hubayshi Hewa S. Khalid Shazia Khalid Khalid Duran The Book of Khalid Khalid Tawfik Lazim Malik Meraj Khalid Khalid Ranjha Saturday Nights (Khalid song) Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa Ali Khalid Khalid Wazir Khalid al-Zahrani Khalid Ishaq Abdullah bin Khalid Al Thani Khalid Mahmood (Norwegian politician) Khalid Ahmad Khalid Kamal Yaseen Doctor Fate (Khalid Nassour) Rubina Khalid Khalid bin Sultan Al Saud Khalid Al-Karkhi Khalid Mumin Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani (born 1935) Khalid Habash Al-Suwaidi Muhammad Khalid Masud OTW (Khalid, Ty Dolla Sign and 6lack song) Khalid Abdullah Mishal al Mutairi Khalid Sebil Lashkari Khalid Boulami Khalid Butt Khalid ibn Sa'id Khalid bin Saud Al Sa