Khalid

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's a strange thing, to be famous, right? Like, really really famous. Famous like Khalid, the singer. He's sold millions of albums. Hundreds of millions of plays on streaming apps. Odds are, there are people right now listening to his music within ten miles of you. People who, right now, constantly check his Instagram for updates. He deals with it in stride, though: making brilliant music and trying to touch the heart of every fan at his shows. He's today's guest on Bullseye, and we're thrilled to have him on. He talks with Jesse about growing up an army brat, acclimating to newfound fame and how they both have an undying mutual love of Sade.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:13.0	I'm Jesse Thorn. It's Bullseye.
0:22.2	Okay, so if you are under 25, first of all, congratulations on listening to NPR.
0:29.2	Second, if you are under 25, you probably know who Khalid is. He is a world famous singer,
0:35.2	millions of plays streaming, millions of album sales, plays to huge crowds. Once at the
0:40.2	Santa Monica Pier, he drew a crowd so big they stopped doing shows there. He's worked
0:45.7	with Kendrick Lamar, imagined dragons, Normani just naming a few. It sound is very unique.
0:51.2	Khalid doesn't really make straight up dance tracks, but he doesn't exactly make ballads,
0:57.2	but he's a singer. His songs are light and soulful, plain, spoken, sincere, maybe a little bit of
1:03.2	billweathers or shoday. Khalid's breakthrough single was called Location, one of the first songs he ever wrote.
1:27.2	He was 18 when it dropped. People thought he was easily 10 years older. You kind of understand
1:44.2	why. His voice has a kind of richness and grace. He sings like a person who's seen some stuff.
1:51.2	That's why I'm a fan of his and why I'm really thrilled to be bringing him onto the show.
1:55.2	Without a new record coming out, it's called Free Spirit. It'll be out later this week.
1:59.2	Before we get into the interview, let's take a listen to a song from it. It's called Talk.
2:25.2	Khalid, welcome to Bullseye. It's great to have you on the show. It's great to be here.
2:46.2	I'm glad you're still enjoying your new record. I can see Kendrick down a little bit over there.
2:50.2	Dancing over here. I read an article where you were, you know, was one of those like Khalid is eating a green salad across from me at the type of articles.
3:01.2	Oh yeah. And you were headed off to Dance rehearsal for your tour with your backup dancers.
3:10.2	Oh yes, yes, yes. I remember. Remember this day. Are you a dancer? No.
3:16.2	As much as I would like to be gifted in the art of dance, I am terrible. I think I'm terrible.
3:23.2	My friends, like my dancer friends always hype me up and they always have me dance when we're, you know, in my house in a safety zone.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.