Khalid (Singer)

Khalid Donnel Robinson was born on February 11, 1998 in Fort Stewart, Georgia and was raised by his single mother Linda Wolfe who worked in the military as a supply technician for over 10 years. Due to her job, they had to move frequently when he was young, and lived in places like Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Drum in Watertown, New York, and in Heidelberg, Germany for six years.

His parents separated when he was very young, and when he was in the second grade, living in Germany with his mother, his father was killed after being hit by a car. His mother later retired from military at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas as a Sergeant First Class.

His mother, who wanted to be an R&B singer back in the 1990s, performed with a U.S. Army band after joining military due to family issues and often practiced duets with him at home. This paroused his interest in music and prompted him to watch YouTube videos of famous singers like Fleetwood Mac, Adele, Bill Withers, Aaliyah and Father John Misty to learn their style.

After returning from Germany, the family moved to New York where he performed in musicals in school, playing Cornelius in ‘Hello, Dolly’ and Seaweed in ‘Hairspray’. His musical talent earned him popularity, but also made him a target of bullying.

He attended his high school senior year at Americas High School in El Paso, Texas. He initially thought of becoming a music teacher, but began to write and record songs in high school and uploaded them to his Soundcloud page.

Some of the early songs that Khalid uploaded on the internet include 'Saved' and 'Stuck On You'. Eager to bring out another song before prom, he managed to contact producer Syk Sense and secured an invitation to work with him in an Atlanta studio.

He first worked on the song in Atlanta and then back in El Paso, and released 'Location', which will eventually became breakthrough single and earned him multiple platinum certification from RIAA. The song finished at No. 20 on the Billboard's 'Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay' chart in 2016 and reached the Top 10 on the 'Billboard Hot R&B Songs' chart on January 21, 2017.

He featured on the single 'Electric' by Alina Baraz, released in January 2016. In December that year, he collaborated with Brooklyn-based duo Brasstracks on the track 'Whirlwind' from Yours Truly and Adidas Originals Songs from Scratch series, which was played over 700,000 times on SoundCloud.

In January and February 2017, he went on his debut headlining tour, the 'Location Tour', covering 21 cities around the US, as well as Canada and Europe. He sold out all the venues of the 25 tour dates, including El Paso's 1,500 capacity Tricky Falls.

After the tour concluded, Khalid released his debut studio album 'American Teen' on March 3, 2017. Supported by singles like 'Location' and 'Young Dumb & Broke', the album debuted at No. 9 on the 'Billboard 200' and reached No. 4 in August, and also topped the R&B Albums chart.

Khalid's debut album 'American Teen' received critical acclaim and was certified platinum by RIAA on October 24, 2017 for selling over 1,000,000 in combined pure sales and album-equivalent units. The song 'Location' from the album also received platinum certification and sold over 4 million copies.