Five-time Grammy-nominated multi-platinum trendsetter Khalid took the industry by storm in 2016 when he released his first single, shortly followed by his first album American Teen a year later. So what was Khalid’s first breakthrough song?
Khalid’s first song is “Location” produced while the singer was still in high school. It was recorded in El Paso, accompanied by producers and his friends and family, and shortly after its release, it became a commercial success.
Read more below about the evolution of Khalid from a military kid to a pop sensation.
The Evolution of Khalid: From Military Kid to Pop Sensation
Born on February 11, 1988, in El Paso, TX, Khalid is the son of military parents whose mom is Linda Wolfe while his father’s name remains unknown.
As can be expected, Khalid and his family moved around a lot throughout his childhood due to the nature of his parent’s careers; he was born in Fort Stewart, GA but moved to El Paso, TX after his first three years of high school in New York. Khalid has also resided in Germany for three years too.
Of being a military child and having an unsettled environment, Khalid said in an interview with Rolling Stone, “you don’t really have any form of stability.”
With little prior experience in the music industry, Khalid took to SoundCloud to upload his earlier works that he’d written while he was still attending high school. A short while afterward, Khalid signed a record deal with RCA and Right Hand Records.
Despite that he was still in high school, Khalid was determined not to give up on his dreams no matter what his peers thought. He said, “I wasn’t like the typical alpha-male. I wasn’t afraid to sing, you know? I wasn’t afraid to be in musicals. Kids are sh***y. I got joked on. You had people saying I was stupid, that I was lame, that I was feminine, this and that.”
Just four years into his career in 2020, this exceptional singer-songwriter has released two studio albums, one extended play (EP), seventeen singles, and nine promotional singles. But where did it all begin?
After his first single “Location” began charting, it started featuring in a variety of publications including Billboard, Yahoo, BuzzFeed, and Rolling Stone.
As 2016 came to a close, “Location” finished at number 20 on the US Mainstream R&B/Hip Hop Airplay chart, while it reached the Top 10 on the US Hot R&B Songs chart in the year following.
Khalid’s First Solo Hit
In April of 2019, Khalid scored his first solo top 10 single with “Better.”
The track was released as part of his first EP Suncity released in 2019, but it also featured on his album Free Spirit. It was a commercial success and marked his first solo top ten in the US reaching number eight in its 30th week on Billboard, making it one of the slowest singles to reach the top ten.
“Better” marked Khalid’s second number one on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, following the 11-week run of “Young Dumb & Broke.”
Khalid’s Biggest Hits
Arguably, one of the biggest hits that are associated with Khalid is a song released as part of his first album entitled “Young Dumb & Broke,” which peaked at number seven on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart.
According to Billboard, some of Khalid’s other big hits are “Eastside,” by benny blanco featuring Halsey and Khalid, “Talk,” “Love Lies,” by Khalid and Normani “Beautiful People” by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid and “1-800-273-8255,” by Logic, featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid.
Khalid is the prime example of someone whose ambition and drive to succeed override any need for caring about what others think of him. Even when his high school peers doubted him at the start, Khalid came back better and stronger.