Khalid

Khalid Donnel Robinson (born February 11, 1998), known mononymously as Khalid, is an American R&B singer and songwriter from El Paso, Texas.

He signed with Courtney Stewart's Right Hand Music Group, an imprint of RCA Records to release his 2016 debut single, "Location" and its 2017 follow-up, "Young Dumb & Broke."

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, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, and Rolling Stone.

Both of which peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, received diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and preceded his debut studio album, American Teen (2017).

The album was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album.

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.

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 and reached the Top 10 on the US Hot R&B Songs chart on January 21, 2017.

The music video for "Location" premiered on The Fader 's website.

In January 2017, Alina Baraz's single "Electric", featuring Khalid, was released.

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.

Khalid contributed uncredited vocals to Kendrick Lamar's song "The Heart Part 4", released on March 24, 2017.

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.

He sold out every venue on his 21-city January–February 2017 Location Tour, including the 1,500-capacity Tricky Falls in El Paso.

Following the completion of the tour, his debut studio album American Teen was released on March 3, 2017.

On October 24, 2017, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling over 1,000,000 in combined pure sales and album-equivalent units.

In 2017, Khalid won a VMA Award for Best New Artist.

Khalid made his television debut performing "Location" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 15, 2017, backed by the Roots.

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.

Khalid's next single was a collaboration with American DJ Marshmello titled "Silence", which was released on August 11, 2017, via RCA Records.

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.

Khalid's song "The Ways" with rapper Swae Lee was featured in the Marvel film Black Panther.

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.

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.

The album received critical acclaim and Grammy Award nominations for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best R&B Song (for "Location"), at the 2018 ceremony.

In September 2018, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo Friday presented Khalid with the key to the City of El Paso.

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.

Robinson has received numerous accolades, including six Grammy Award nominations, six Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards and a MTV Video Music Award.

In 2019, Robinson was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People.

Robinson was born in Fort Stewart, Georgia.

He spent his childhood in various locations due to his mother, Linda Wolfe, and her father's military careers, including Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Drum in Watertown, New York, and six years in Heidelberg, Germany.

Wolfe worked as a supply technician and became a member of the Army corps.

In high school, Robinson studied singing and musical theater.

He attended Carthage Central High School in Carthage, New York for his first three years of high school before he and his mother moved to El Paso, Texas, where he attended Americas High School for his senior year.

Khalid began writing and creating music in high school; he posted his early works to SoundCloud.