'Freedom Feels Like Fearlessness': Khalid Opens Up About His Era Of Liberation

Khalid opens up about freedom, new music, playing at the Sydney Opera House, and why coming out as gay transformed his world tour.

Khalid Profile

Khalid Robinson – who favours a mononym – has navigated the vagaries of fame as a global, and generational, R&B pop superstar.

But, since coming out as gay in late 2024, he's claimed a new creative freedom with the confessional album after the sun goes down. And, bringing his blockbuster It's Always Summer Somewhere World Tour to Australian arenas following May's epic North American run, it could be that Khalid's haven is the stage. He doesn't want to stop performing.

"Now, if it was my choice, I wanted to just keep it going," Khalid enthuses during a lull. "But I feel like it's good that I'm waiting, because that means that everybody will be getting a refreshed show – no exhaustion, chill, calm, with lots of energy."

Live, Khalid is promoting that transformative 2025 comeback after the sun goes down – its songs manifesting a phenomenon called anemoia, a vicarious nostalgia for a past someone never personally experienced. He's welcomed the reception from his devoted fandom, valuing connection and community post-COVID-19 pandemic.

"The tour has been so rewarding in a way that has exceeded my expectations by a long shot. I feel like, when I was preparing myself for this tour, I really didn't know what to expect on the road because it's been so long... I mean, this is my first tour, and we're talking 'world tour' now, since 2019. So this is a completely different society.

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"So, like I said, what do you expect when it's been so long since you've taken that ride; taken that drive? I don't know. But, when I started the tour, and I started to experience my fans, it felt so right. It was just like, 'Oh, my God…'

“Part of me is like, 'How could I have waited this long to come back?' But then part of me is like, 'Oh, it's just so worth the wait.' It's so worth the wait when you can experience fans at this personal of a level, performing this music that people have listened to for a decade."

Exuding authentic charm, Khalid is Zooming from his Californian home – the backdrop a plaque for 2017's debut album, American Teen. Ever the trendsetter, he's sporting a smart black and white striped top with manicured rainbow-hued pastel nails.

Khalid has a curious relationship with Australia – this his fifth visit. He first hit the East Coast at the end of 2017, returning exclusively for 2018's Splendour In The Grass and again for 2019's headline shows and Spilt Milk (coincidentally, Juice WRLD's swansong).

Additionally, in Khalid's album credits can be seen Australian producers like Naarm/Melbourne's UNO Stereo and the veteran M-Phazes, plus he cameoed on PNAU's single The Hard Way. He even contributed Silver Platter to Barbie The Album – 2023's box office movie smash starring and co-produced by Aussie Margot Robbie.

Then, in 2024, Khalid premiered his third album, Sincere, with two world limited concerts at the Sydney Opera House – surprising as typically such events would happen in Los Angeles, New York or London, not the Antipodes. "It was amazing," he raves. "The Sydney Opera House was incredible. That was on my artist bucket list… That was a venue that I've always wanted to perform at since I was a little boy."

In 2026, the 28-year-old titan quietly marked the 10th anniversary of his glitchy breakthrough Location, which established him as a streaming sensation and is now certified diamond Stateside.

A US Army brat, born on Georgia's Fort Stewart military base, Khalid had a peripatetic childhood. The progeny's parents separated and he was raised by his Sergeant (and singer) mother Linda Wolfe, spending a few years in Heidelberg, Southwest Germany when, tragically, a drunk driver struck his father. Eventually, Khalid settled in El Paso, a majority Hispanic city in Texas near the Mexican border.

An aspiring music-maker in high school, the teen uploaded Location to SoundCloud, its virality culminating in a deal with RCA Records via the Right Hand Music Group – headed by Atlantan Courtney Stewart, who previously managed noughties R&B vocalist Bobby V (aka Bobby Valentino). RCA curated elite Location remixes, one featuring British art-rapper Little Simz.

Playing intimate European venues in early 2017, Khalid subsequently presented American Teen – a Gen Z soundtrack capturing the tenor of the times with alternately angsty and euphoric electro 'n' B, an individualistic vision and conspicuously no guests.

The hooky Young Dumb & Broke (produced by Lorde's cohort Joel Little), proved even bigger than Location and became Khalid's signature – an enduring recessionary banger. That year, he won the MTV Video Music Award for 'Best New Artist' over SZA and, the next, received several Grammy nominations.

Khalid was soon ubiquitous as a hitmaker – and prolific collaborator. He joined Alessia Cara on Logic's defining crossover anthem 1-800-273-8255 (a Grammy 'Song Of The Year' contender), made an initial foray into EDM with the helmeted US DJ/producer Marshmello on the future bass Silence, duetted with Normani on Love Lies (off the gay teen romance OST Love, Simon), materialised on Kendrick Lamar's buzz Hollywood project Black Panther The Album with the trap The Ways alongside Swae Lee and elevated benny blanco's Eastside with Halsey.

Notably, Khalid recorded the delicate ballad lovely with fellow countercultural disrupter Billie Eilish for Netflix's TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY – still his #1 song on Spotify. It says much that tracks with Calvin Harris and Future (the seasonal Rollin), Justin Bieber (As I Am, which garnered Khalid a seventh Grammy nom as Justice was shortlisted for 'Album Of The Year') and Tate McRae (the standalone working, guided by Little) are barely mentioned in pressers simply because they've been eclipsed.

In 2018 the El Pasoan issued the balmy Suncity EP as a stopgap, savouring another smash with the anthemic Better. The following year, Khalid, now 21, showed maturity, and an experimental impulse, on the US chart-topping LP Free Spirit – heralded by Talk, which Brit housers Disclosure helmed. The roll-out was lavish with a short film screening in cinemas.

In a departure, Khalid cut the rock-leaning Outta My Head, recruiting John Mayer, while implausibly co-writing Heaven with the eccentric Father John Misty. The same month Free Spirit aired, Khalid played his inaugural Coachella (this year, arriving full circle, he finally returned to the Colorado Desert as Disclosure's guest). Khalid was declared the biggest act in the world on Spotify and Time magazine included him in its '100 Most Influential People Of 2019', Alicia Keys penning the testimonial. Talk was later up for 'Record Of The Year' at the Grammys.

Like many artists, Khalid lost momentum amid the pandemic. Yet he resurfaced with the introverted (albeit underrated) Sincere – the single Please Don't Fall In Love With Me downbeat.

However, after the sun goes down, led by the symbolically bouncy in plain sight, is Khalid's boldest – and most unreserved – work lyrically. Crucially, he explores his queer identity, revelling in freedom without expectation. Indeed, in November 2024, Khalid confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that he is gay, having been contentiously doxxed by an ex-boyfriend. "I got outted and the world still continues to turn," the private star stated eloquently. "Let's get this straight (lmao) I am not ashamed of my sexuality! In reality it ain't nobodies business! But I am okay with me."

In some ways, after the sun goes down evokes American Teen. It is a classic R&B album with inflections of electronica but pays homage to vintage pop from the '80s through to the new millennium. Khalid hired the Iranian-Swedish Ilya Salmanzadeh – longtime associate of Ariana Grande – as executive producer. He also teams with R&B legend Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, who orchestrated Brandy & Monica's iconic The Boy Is Mine, for out of body, a '90s Latin throwback.

"I have so much appreciation for this album because, to me, if this album never happened, if I didn't spend those days and those nights locking myself into a studio, travelling overseas and hopping in these rooms with amazing producers such as Ilya, if I didn't do all of these things, I wouldn't have found the amount of liberation that I feel like I'm able to sit in currently," Khalid reflects. "I feel like this album sounds like freedom – and I feel like, as an artist, I needed to express that. I needed to get it off of my chest, because, in a way, I feel like I've always wanted to feel free. I mean, I put out an album called Free Spirit in 2019.

"Freedom has always been something that I feel like I've been chasing. Now that I feel free, I'm like, 'Wow, OK, this is what it feels like.' It feels like to be free is to be fearless. It feels like I don't have any fear in my body of expressing myself as an artist. That comes from songs like out of body and that comes from songs like nah, where I'm reclaiming my power. I'm like, 'You know what? No, I won't – I actually won't deal with this, because I don't really have to.' I think that those are new perspectives when it comes to songs that I've written.

"Usually, I find myself to be somewhat of a hopeless romantic, longing for something that seems so far out of reach. [But] I feel like, with after the sun goes down, it was one of the first times where I was like, 'No, I have the choice.' It was amazing – because it's like, 'Yeah, I have the choice to be free. I could have ran and I could have hid from the world when everybody found out [I was gay]. But instead I'm choosing liberation; I'm choosing freedom.'"

Today Khalid is content with the arc of his career. "I'm very grateful for my trajectory when it comes down to my career, because I did a lot of the hard happy work early – and I think that that allowed me to be able to walk with a little bit more humility as I age deeper into my career."

If Khalid's achievements have induced pressure, then he's undaunted. "To me, I feel like it sets the roadway of just so much more experience to do it all again – because I might have done it early, but I was only 17-, 18-, 19- years-old. I'm only 28-years-old now. So I'm grateful that things turned out the way that it turned out, because now, as I've matured my mindset, as I've aged, I feel like I know myself so much more as a writer; that special things are happening every day in the studio.

"Yeah, I'm happy with where I'm at – because I've found the joy of creating again. I found the joy of creating and I found the joy of performing and I found the joy of being a musician again. So I'm really excited to be in this chapter. It feels like it's gonna be one of my best chapters I've ever had of my life. I'm excited."

Nevertheless, as after the sun goes down turns a-year-old this month, Khalid has moved on. The prodigy acknowledges speaking of his fourth album "journey" in the "past tense," he explains, "because I'm already currently working on my next one," adding that "it's exciting."

It transpires that Khalid began making fresh pop prior to embarking on tour. How far along is he? "Far enough to have a concept, far enough that music has been recorded, far enough that music has been in the process of being recorded since I will say maybe February," Khalid teases. "So time has been spent – like things are happening, things are moving and shaking. I'm letting the songs come to me – I'm taking my time. That's why I wanted to start before I went on tour so I could have enough time to go into this with a clear head."

In fact, revisiting his canon has generated ideas, in a time loop, Khalid says. "Sometimes I have a couple of 'back to the drawing board' moments where I'm like, 'OK, I perform [Suncity's] Saturday Nights every night and it impacts the crowd like this. What else can I add on this new project that might not be a re-creation, but might give them that same feeling that they've been chasing?'"

Khalid's sonic changeability is extraordinary even in the era of 'post-genre' aesthetics, spanning pop, R&B, hip hop, electronica, indie, reggaeton and Afrobeat. Possibly prompted by the success of Silence and the EDM boom, he's collaborated widely with DJ/producers – blessing Kygo's trop-house Save My Love with Gryffin in February. But, in 2019, Khalid enlisted US country star (and labelmate) Kane Brown for a groundbreaking remix of Saturday Nights, in tandem with the country-rap wave. Is there another genre he fancies putting his stamp on?

"You know, I've been listening to a lot of soft rock, actually," Khalid shares. "I've been listening to a lot of '90s soft rock, a lot of alternative music, a lot of Incubus – a lot of '90s… I feel like my main inspiration that I've pulled from has been maybe the '80s – I feel like I'm an '80s kid at heart. But some of the '90s grunge, the gritty guitars and the textural sounds have really been calling me recently. So, yes, soft rock is definitely my vibe."

Khalid's influence is pervasive. He co-penned a song for former labelmate ZAYN – Outside off Nobody Is Listening. But conceivably, that other One Direction alumni Harry Styles took cues from American Teen for his au courant dance-pop American Girls.

Has he noticed his impact? "You know what? I feel like it's possible – and the reason I feel like it's possible is because I find myself re-inspired by moments that I've had in my career." Launching his tour, Khalid continues, "I was singing songs every single day that I hadn't heard or listened to in years," and he reappraised them. "I was like, 'There was a current that was involved with American Teen, there was a current that was involved with Free Spirit' that, looking back, I realised, 'Wow, OK, I did have a major impact – a major, major, major impact!'"

Khalid laughs. "I feel like the modest thing to do is to say, 'Oh, I don't realise that I'm inspiring other artists.' But I think that, for me, I love that I'm able to inspire any new artist out there in some capacity – because I feel like that's what this is all for; that's what creating music is for. That's why you put the music out there in the universe: to touch people, to move people, to inspire people, to motivate people."

The singer/songwriter may be an old soul. "I'm grateful to have been in my career long enough to say that the time that I've spent can cause some inspiration in some new budding artists. Maybe an artist who discovered me when they were six-years-old becomes an artist at 16. I think that's special – I think that's an incredible thing."

Khalid has gracefully handled the attention that comes with being in the spotlight. Contemporary pop stars are subjected to heightened scrutiny and virtually obliged to be role models – the online environment notoriously toxic. How does Khalid stay centred, grounded and prioritise self-care with his celebrity? And does he have a happy place?

"I do have a happy place," Khalid replies coyly, astutely reorienting the conversation back to his tour. "One thing that I will say about my fans, my listeners and my supporters is we have a really good relationship when it comes to our sense of humanity. When the tone is set at these shows and in these venues, it honestly feels like so much love, so much appreciation – maybe more so now because I'm out about my sexuality. I feel like, if anyone didn't like or enjoy me being gay, they probably fell off the train a while ago.

"I feel like for me now at my core, these are people who are really OK with me being myself – and I feel like, in a way, to really be OK with someone being themselves, you kind of have to relate to that a little bit in your core. I feel like the people who have the most problems with people who are being themselves are people who need to heal; people who need to find themselves.

"So, when I see the judgement and I see the rhetoric and I see people on social media, I just remind myself I can't be mad at these people, because these people are also going through their own path of life. If they feel the need to spew negativity at this level so much where they can't help themselves but to type something negative or mean, it's like those are people who just need help – so I'm not gonna kick anybody while they're down.

“I think I just ignore it and keep it pushing. I'm like, 'People who are coming to these shows are people who love me, so I gotta focus on them.' I feel like [if] you take too much time focusing on the people who don't like you, you take the time away from appreciating the people that do. So it keeps me chill knowing that I do have some riders on my side that like me for being me."

Probe Khalid about his hobbies and he offers "long walks and video games" like Fortnite. But he hopes to indulge in recreation in Oz, venturing outside. "Last time I was there, I didn't really spend much time dancing," Khalid ponders. "I didn't go out to the nightlife. I feel like I was on my 'Let's go to a cute restaurant [vibe]'… It was a celebration of my project, my album and I was focused – because it was the first time that I had performed this music in so long. But now that I've kind of dusted off the cobwebs and the training wheels are gone, I'm ready to hit the town and have a good time." Khalid is unstoppable.

Khalid returns to Australia in November. Tickets are now available.

Presented by Frontier Touring, MG Live and Mai FM (NZ only)