Khalid

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's a strange thing, to be famous, right? Like, really really famous. Famous like Khalid, the singer. He deals with it in stride, though: making brilliant music that tries to touch the heart of every fan at his shows. He's sold millions of albums. Billions of plays on streaming apps. He plays to huge crowds. Madison Square Garden. MGM Grand Garden. He's currently on a stadium tour with Ed Sheeran. When we spoke a few years back he had just released Free Spirit. He talked with Jesse about growing up an army brat, and acclimating to that fame. Plus, we know Khalid can sing, but can he rap? We'll get him to freestyle some bars. A version of this interview was released in April of 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation,
0:05.1	working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems.
0:12.0	More information is at walton family foundation.org.
0:17.1	Bullseye with Jesse Thorne is a production of Maximum Fun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:23.6	It's Bolzai. I'm Jesse Thorne.
0:39.9	Okay, so if you're under 25, well, first of all, if you're under 25, congratulations on listening to NPR.
0:46.6	You are to me a treasured jewel. I love you so much. Please keep listening.
0:50.9	Second, if you're under 25, you probably know who Khalid is. He is a world
0:58.0	famous singer. Millions of streaming plays, millions of album sales. He placed a huge crowds.
1:05.5	One time at the Santa Monica Pier, he drew a crowd so big that they stopped having shows there.
1:12.5	Khalid has worked with Kendrick Lamar, imagined dragons, Normani, just naming a few.
1:17.4	And his sound is unique.
1:19.1	They're not straight-up dance tracks, but not a lot of ballads either.
1:24.2	They're light and soulful, plain-sp spoken and sincere. There's a little bit of maybe
1:30.1	Bill Withers or Shadeh. Khalid's breakthrough single was called Location. It's one of the first
1:37.6	songs he ever wrote.
1:41.4	Send me your location, let's focus on communicating, because I just need the time and place to come through.
1:53.4	Send me your location, let's ride the vibrations. I don't need nothing else but you. That track dropped when he was 18. People assumed he was in his late 20s. You can kind of
2:08.9	understand why. His voice has a certain grace. He sings like a person who's seen stuff. When
2:17.3	Khalid and I talked in 2019, he'd just dropped his sophomore album, Free Spirit.
2:22.7	Before we get into the interview, let's hear a song from it.
2:26.3	Talk.
	...

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