You're able to let all that energy out and focus on the good.”Īn hour after we bid a fond farewell to Khalid, a sold-out Spark Arena euphorically chants his name on repeat, waiting for him to take to the stage. In a Noisey profile earlier this year, Khalid shared the benefit of the emotional expression that his music facilitates, saying, “I'm just so glad I'm learning how to express my emotions, because once you're in touch with them it does so much for you.

Maybe I need more time to find out who I am before I try to find love,” his music supports that ambition, an outlet which encourages self-growth and self-realisation. “This next song is about to be sad as shit,” Khalid discloses before he performs ‘Another Sad Love Song’ later that night during his show, a song he laughs at the irony of - 'I say I’m not the best at showing my emotions, and then here I am, pouring my heart out in a song.' The outpouring of his heart feels truly honest, and although he annotated on Genius six months ago, “Maybe love is not for me right now. Though he's yet to discover his soulmate, he has become more in touch with his emotions through his songwriting. Between discussing everything from true love to the American Dream, an aura of positivity glows from within Khalid - even when musing that he hasn’t found the love of his life yet, he’s optimistic ( 'I haven’t met them yet, but hopefully along the road I do.'). Considering the fact that he just arrived in New Zealand via a thirteen-hour flight the night prior, his energy levels surpass all expectations, with a genuine liveliness exuding from him. Full name Khalid Robinson, he bounces into a tiny backstage room at Auckland’s Spark Arena with uncontainable joy, beaming from ear to ear as we’re introduced to him by a record label publicist. When taking into account all of the above, you might expect the sudden trajectory of fame to have affected the ego of the musician behind all these statistics, particularly when he also happens to be just nineteen-years-old…īut then you meet him. And on top of all this, Khalid has just been announced as a nominee for Best New Artist at the 2018 Grammys. He’s received over one billion streams worldwide. His latest single ‘Young Dumb & Broke’ is platinum in the US, New Zealand, and Australia (it’s actually 2x Platinum there). On September 13th, he was the most-played artist on Spotify. Another 123 days after this day, the album was certified platinum. 112 days later, the album went Gold in the US. It’s 278 days since Khalid’s debut album ‘American Teen’ was released into the world - and since then, a number of deserving anomalies have occurred.

Khalid american teen album cover