Khalid Robinson, who goes by Khalid in the music industry, is a 26-year-old American singer and songwriter who produces music along the genres of R&B, soul, and pop. He rose to fame through his 2016 single titled “Location” which blew up a year after he released it. His first album “American Teen” was released in 2017 when he was only 19 years old and gained him even more popularity. Since then, he has collaborated with many other well-known artists up until about 2021. Now, it seems that the talented singer has fallen off.
While “Location” jumpstarted Khalid’s career, socialite and media personality Kylie Jenner brought more attention to it after posting a video of herself dancing to the song on Snapchat. From there, Khalid’s fame skyrocketed even more. He appeared on both Billboard charts and Twitter Emerging Artists only two months later. Four months from then, “Location” spent 21 weeks on the chart, peaking at Number 2.
Khalid appealed to a large audience of listeners, not just those who could relate to his songs by their age and similar feelings. I was nowhere near the age of a teenager when I listened to “American Teen” with my older sister. Several people know of his other favored songs “Young Dumb & Broke” and “8TEEN”, the stereotypical anthem which was used by 2018-2019 YouTube influencers.
After receiving so much attention from his first album, he continued succeeding in his music career by putting out more songs and collaborating with many other well-known artists, such as Shawn Mendes, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, and Billie Eilish. These artists are still relevant, some to different extents, however, while Khalid continues to produce music as well, he is less and less heard of nowadays. It seemed his publicity decreased significantly around 2021.
In a Twitter thread posted during the summer of 2021, Khalid stated he felt overwhelmed to complete his new album.
“Creating is what keeps me from losing my mind, but my passion goes away a little more every day,” he wrote.
Khalid also spoke on his struggle to remain authentic to himself while hoping to please people with his new music. He stayed genuine to his fanbase, assuring them that he wanted to put out something he truly believed in. Since then, he has released a few more songs and went on tour with Ed Sheeran in 2023 but has still yet to make a true comeback, especially for expectant fans.
Despite him being quiet and MIA for a long while, this month Khalid officially announced he would be releasing new music and a new album in 2024. Will he be back for long, and will his new songs receive as much recognition as his old songs once did?
