Khalid — Recognisable without standing still

With some artists, I listen to a new album first before deciding whether I want to own it.

With Khalid, I have now reached the point where I could practically buy his records without hearing them first… and I mean that as a considerable compliment.

Something I eventually noticed about Khalid is that he seems to be a real workhorse. His albums have more than eight or ten songs. Fifteen on his debut, then 17, then 16, and now 16 again.

But quantity alone would hardly be a special achievement. For me, the remarkable thing is something else:

I hardly ever feel the urge to skip a song on his albums. I put on a Khalid record and simply let it play.

His latest album, After the Sun Goes Down, was released on 10 October 2025 and is his fourth regular studio album. I have now listened to it so often that I have also just bought the coloured special edition on double vinyl.

While spending time with that latest record, I realised that you can hardly tell its story without going a little further back. Khalid’s story is quite remarkable.

American Teen: the beginning in El Paso

Khalid Donnel Robinson was born in Georgia in 1998. His mother served in the US military, so he moved around a lot as a child. Among other places, he lived in Germany for several years before the family eventually settled in El Paso, Texas.

There, everything suddenly moves very quickly.

While still in high school, he releases “Location”. The song becomes a huge success, and Khalid signs with Right Hand Music Group and RCA Records, ultimately becoming part of Sony Music.

His debut, American Teen, follows on 3 March 2017. Fifteen songs, and Khalid is only 19 years old.

When I hear the record now, it almost feels like a small document of his youth. Friends, driving, first relationships, freedom, uncertainty, El Paso. Even the melancholy somehow still feels a little like the summer holidays. And everything I like about Khalid to this day is already there.

That warm voice. The relaxed beats. R&B, soul and pop, without making me feel I must place every song in a particular category. Above all, there is that feeling: the music does not push. It plays, and at some point you realise you have long been moving along with it.

Success comes practically overnight.

In 2017, Khalid wins Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards. In this first phase, he receives five Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, Best R&B Song for “Location” and Best Urban Contemporary Album for American Teen.

I find that quite astonishing. Just a little earlier, this boy is still going to school in El Paso, and suddenly he is one of the big international names in R&B.

And Khalid simply keeps going.

Free Spirit: the music grows with him

The seven-song EP Suncity is released on 19 October 2018. It includes “Better”, a piece that, for me, already captures that Khalid sound almost perfectly.

At the same time, his voice suddenly turns up everywhere: “Love Lies” with Normani, “Eastside” with Benny Blanco and Halsey, “Silence” with Marshmello and “1-800-273-8255” with Logic and Alessia Cara.

The next major album, Free Spirit, arrives on 5 April 2019. Seventeen songs, yet once again I feel no need to start skipping tracks.

For me, you can hear quite clearly on Free Spirit what has happened in the meantime. Within two years, the unknown teenager from El Paso has become an international star. Somehow, the music grows with him. Everything gets bigger and broader, the production more elaborate, the pop element clearer. At the same time, I already find him more thoughtful here than on American Teen.

Now, the newcomer finally becomes a superstar.

Free Spirit becomes his first number-one album in the US. At one point, an incredible 16 Khalid songs are simultaneously in the top 25 of the American Hot R&B Songs chart. He wins three times at the 2019 American Music Awards: Favorite Male Artist Pop/Rock, Favorite Album Soul/R&B for Free Spirit and Favorite Song Soul/R&B for “Talk”. “Talk” then earns him another Grammy nomination, this time for Record of the Year.

Things subsequently become quieter with the regular albums. But Khalid himself certainly does not disappear.

Singles such as “Up All Night”, “Eleven” and “Know Your Worth” with Disclosure arrive, along with continued collaborations. Scenic Drive (The Tape) is released on 3 December 2021. A mixtape rather than a regular studio album, it contains nine pieces and guests such as Alicia Keys, 6lack, Lucky Daye, JID and Ari Lennox. “Last Call”, “Numb” with Marshmello, “Satellite” and further collaborations follow.

That is exactly what I mean by a workhorse.

Khalid does not necessarily release a new album every year. But he continually produces and releases music. And when a proper studio album comes along, it contains more than nine songs and 31 minutes: there are 15, 16 or 17 pieces.

Sincere: the American Teen grows up

Sincere finally arrives on 2 August 2024, again with 16 songs.

For me, even the title fits the change I hear in him quite well: the American Teen has grown up.

Sincere feels more personal and introspective to me. Relationships, loss, loneliness and self-doubt carry more weight. I feel Khalid looks less outward on this record and more deeply into himself. On 6 December 2024, he even adds another six songs with Sincere (Deluxe)!

After the Sun Goes Down

Then, on 10 October 2025, “After the Sun Goes Down” is released, again with 16 songs, just over a year after Sincere.

You can see his personal change in it too.

If I look at the Khalid of American Teen and compare him with Khalid now, a 19-year-old has, of course, grown up. But I think more has happened. His fashion, his manner, his physical presence, the images: it all seems more deliberate, freer and more confident to me now.

Something similar happens musically.

After the Sun Goes Down moves more clearly towards pop and dance. Khalid names influences such as Janet Jackson, Rihanna and Britney Spears. This time, an impressive team works behind the scenes, including Darkchild, Ilya, BloodPop, Ryan Tedder, Tove Lo, Julia Michaels, Oscar Holter and Mattman & Robin.

Khalid is also a writer of his music, as he has been from the beginning. His role goes beyond being the voice in front of a large production team.

What I find remarkable when I place his four studio albums side by side is that it always sounds like Khalid, yet he does not repeat himself.

Four albums, a sound of his own

They are by no means the same. If I had to sum up their development quite subjectively in one sentence each, it might be:

– American Teen: Who am I, actually? – Free Spirit: Where can I go? – Sincere: Who am I really? – After the Sun Goes Down: Now I will show you.

Of course, that is my interpretation, rather than a concept Khalid officially gave these four records. But that is exactly how I experience his development.

Yet there is still that connecting thread, that Khalid sound. I cannot quite place it in a genre, but I recognise it immediately. That warm voice. Those relaxed beats. That light melancholy that never becomes really heavy. At some point, you are snapping your fingers and moving along.

Something else runs through his music for me too: Khalid almost always has a certain summer vibe. I do not necessarily mean a beach, a pool or a summer party. I think more of a warm evening. Windows open, perhaps still out somewhere, the sun has just set and the air is still warm.

His latest album could hardly have a more fitting title:

After the Sun Goes Down.

One thing really surprised me while spending time with Khalid. He now has seven Grammy nominations, yet has not won a single one. To be honest, I cannot understand that at all.

Of course, a Grammy does not decide whether someone is a great artist. But when I look at what Khalid has released since American Teen, how consistently good I find his albums and how he keeps his own sound while continuing to develop, he has long been a truly great artist for me.

My artist recommendation

That brings me to my recommendation for this week. Normally, this would be an album of the week. With Khalid, this time I would say:

Listen to After the Sun Goes Down and to all his other records too. Feel free to start with American Teen and continue chronologically. Then Suncity, Free Spirit, Scenic Drive, Sincere and finally After the Sun Goes Down.

You will hear a great deal of good music and how a 19-year-old boy from El Paso becomes an adult artist. How his music changes, how he changes himself and how he still preserves something I recognise instantly, from the first album to the present.

Recognisable without standing still.

So this may be less a recommendation for an individual album than a wholehearted recommendation for an artist. Khalid really is one of those musicians about whom I can simply say: listen to him. Pretty much everything. I think he is brilliant.

What stays with me

A voice that stays

Perhaps that is ultimately the greatest compliment I can give him: with none of his albums do I feel the urge to skip a song, and you really can buy his records without hearing them first.