“Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up on yourself.”
― Khalid
“I suffer from anxiety, moments of depression. I’m in my head so much, and I’m thinking so much, I’m playing a tug-of-war within my mind.”
― Khalid
“I always try to be nice. I never want to be that person that anyone perceives as being rude or disrespectful, ’cause that’s not me at all.”
― Khalid
“Once you’re comfortable with the way that you’re dressing, you express yourself a lot more, and you’re just able to have a lot more fun.”
― Khalid
“I was told I wasn’t good enough, but I just chose not to listen.”
― Khalid
“I would classify myself as an individual. That’s what I try to stay true with – being myself, 100 percent.”
― Khalid
“I feel like baggy pants are cool.”
― Khalid
“I use my clothing choices as a way to express how I feel.”
― Khalid
“I would never have been able to find my voice if I didn’t have music education.”
― Khalid
“I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to go. I always wanted to entertain and help others.”
― Khalid
“Falling in love in high school and falling out of love – it’s very digital. I’ve had breakups where they’ve called me to tell me we were done, and I’ve gotten a lot of text messages from an old girlfriend letting me know how she felt about me after we had ended everything.”
― Khalid
“A lot of people think teenagers haven’t gone through anything in their lives – they’re not even 20 years old yet. But a twenty-something can go through the same type of experience or heartbreak that a 50-year-old can go through, so why does age matter?”
― Khalid
“For me, love is endless, and love has no age limit.”
― Khalid
“As an artist, I never want to be a moment. I want to be a legacy, and I want my music to touch people for years to come.”
― Khalid
“I was in the sixth grade and living in Germany, when I was hanging out late with some friends. I turned around, and there’s a dude dressed up as Michael Myers following us all the way home. It was the scariest thing ever, and it always reminds me of Halloween. In my mind, I was so young, so I really thought it was Mike Myers following me home.”
― Khalid
“I worked hard on making a body of work that takes people on a journey. It was never about making a certain type of song. It was simply about embracing real-life situations.”
― Khalid
“I moved from New York to El Paso in 2015, just before my senior year. I was super nervous. My mom, she’s in the Army, and she got stationed at Fort Bliss. We packed everything up and drove all the way to El Paso.”
― Khalid
“When I started writing, I said, ‘I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know if it sounds good.’ Coming from being an underdog or being told that something wasn’t for you over and over repeatedly, it took a lot out of me. It took a lot of my self-confidence.”
― Khalid
“We forget that when you grow up, there are a lot of people who are in the same position as you. The reason we forget is because there’s not really a true voice that talks from the perspective of youth.”
― Khalid
“I knew if I worked hard enough that I’d be successful and eventually give opportunities to others.”
― Khalid
“Art is fluid, and it travels. You have to let music take you where it wants to take you. You can’t necessarily be the controller.”
― Khalid
“I had originally planned to do musical theatre and be on Broadway, but then my love for poetry also set in. Once that happened, I became torn between a career as an English teacher or a music teacher.”
― Khalid
“I try to take all of my experiences in and not take anything for granted.”
― Khalid
“I love visiting my friends because it makes me feel normal.”
― Khalid
“I just love matching sets. Tops and bottoms that are the same color are awesome to me, because you can get them in so many different colors – neon colors.”
― Khalid
“I want people to know that it’s OK to have feelings; it’s OK to be vulnerable. That no matter where they live around the world, teenagers all go through the same things.”
― Khalid
“My mom is my biggest inspiration by far. She inspires me on a daily basis. I remember hearing her sing around the house, and I was like, ‘Mom, you belong on TV. You’re a superstar.’”
― Khalid
“It’s my job to accept my youth, to spread my story, to let people know who I am as an individual, because there’s so many people who are blinded and think less of me because of my skin color.”
― Khalid
“I was very confused with where my life was heading, but I knew that whatever I did, music was going to be involved.”
― Khalid
“Even though I wasn’t born or raised in El Paso, it’ll always be a part of me until the day that I die.”
― Khalid
“I’ve met so many new fans and amazing people while traveling to new cities and locations throughout 2017 in support of my album ‘American Teen.’”
― Khalid
“Love crosses all boundaries.”
― Khalid
“With ‘Location’ and all the other songs around it, my music turned into therapy for others. And that’s something I really love and am blown away by.”
― Khalid
“When I wanted to be a music teacher, I wanted to help people through voice. Now, I get to help people out through song.”
― Khalid
“I’ve got to thank the city of El Paso for standing behind me.”
― Khalid
“We were told not to turn our hobby into our job, but to turn our job into our hobby. As kids, we were told not to pursue our dreams!”
― Khalid
“I feel like we go through different stages of love. When you get a little bit older, love starts to feel different, but you see that love has always been there.”
― Khalid
“My mom raised a self-aware kid. I wasn’t like the typical alpha male. I wasn’t afraid to sing, you know? I wasn’t afraid to be in musicals.”
― Khalid
“You’re not a real fan if you don’t know how to say my name.”
― Khalid
“Combing your hair after a long time is terrible.”
― Khalid
“My peers inspire me, especially being a newer artist.”
― Khalid
“I’m a regular guy, and I don’t want anyone to look at me as being superior or having a God complex or anything like that, you know? I don’t want to walk around like I know everything, because I have so much more room to improve.”
― Khalid
“What really keeps me grounded is my fans and the way that I connect with them.”
― Khalid
“My mom and I, we have trust within each other because at one time in our lives, we were kind of all that we had, you know? My mom had me, and I had her.”
― Khalid
“For me, when I grew up, I never really had an outlet when it came to my social surroundings. Even if I had a form of popularity, I felt like I was very limited.”
― Khalid
“A lot of my songs are about loneliness and losing relationships. Even the ones that are happy, there’s a lonely undertone to them.”
― Khalid
“I didn’t feel like I had a home until I moved to El Paso.”
― Khalid
“The thing about going back to El Paso, it’s overwhelming sometimes. I look at the support that I get and the success that I’ve had, and I can’t walk anywhere without being spotted. My hair might be the biggest crime in this situation.”
― Khalid
“El Paso is where I started. I don’t feel like I’d be making the music I’m making now if I hadn’t gone there.”
― Khalid
“Kendrick Lamar deserves a Grammy. He’s one of the biggest, most influential rappers of my generation.”
― Khalid
“My mind was so geared towards being a performing artist, singing all these classical pieces, but the sense of loneliness I got when I moved from New York to El Paso meant that writing turned into singing. I’d sing all these songs, and they’d make me feel better. Songs that crafted the way my life was going to go.”
― Khalid
“I’m an African-American man with an Afro who isn’t your typical athlete – who wasn’t as masculine as other guys.”
― Khalid
“I got joked on. You had people saying I was stupid, that I was lame, that I was feminine, this and that. I was like, ‘OK, but I’m still gonna be successful, and you’re not.’”
― Khalid
“Uzi is insanely good and super creative.”
― Khalid
“And even though I’m famous, I still go through things that young people go through.”
― Khalid
“I wrote ‘Saved’ as a form of therapy to get over the fact that I had moved and lost so much of myself.”
― Khalid
“The first songs I made brought me to the Grammys. I was a five-times nominated teenager off voice memos and songs that were clearly recorded off different mics.”
― Khalid
“It’s crazy that people are looking to me as a symbol like, ‘Oh, he’s the voice of the youth. He’s this and this and that.’ I feel like there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it, when people look to you as the face of something.”
― Khalid
“I gotta spread all this love that I have for myself, I gotta spread it to everybody else, because my positivity is going to change at least one person’s day a day, and that’s all that matters to me.”
― Khalid
“There’s been a time where I was like, I wanna be a folk singer; no, I wanna sing soul. I want to sing classical music. I want to sing R&B. I want to be on Broadway. I just wanna sing. Whatever comes out of my mouth, that’s what I want to do.”
― Khalid
“I can’t play an instrument to save my life. But when I’m creating, and when I’m making music, I feel like I’m the head of the orchestra, and I’m just waving my wand, and something is created.”
― Khalid
“Being vulnerable was difficult for me at first because I’ve said things in my songs about how I felt that I never told anybody.”
― Khalid
“To be recognized and accepted by my musical peers is truly an honor.”
― Khalid
“I’d love to collaborate with Frank Ocean. He’s one of my favorite artists of all time.”
― Khalid
“I’m really excited about what the future holds and to grow as an individual and as an artist.”
― Khalid
“Even though I was super personal with ‘American Teen,’ I want to tap in and not just tell my own stories but tell the stories of other people – so that I can help as many people as possible.”
― Khalid
“I’ve felt like an outcast most of my life, being in multiple high schools and being a military child.”
― Khalid
“If you don’t text your relationship partner – even if you just saw them in person – it’s like you’re doing something wrong.”
― Khalid
“It wasn’t like I was specifically wanting to write songs about technology. It’s just what I lived, what I was experiencing growing up.”
― Khalid
“In my home, we listened to music all the time. I was raised through music, and I’ve been interested in it since I was three.”
― Khalid
“I’ve been singing since I could talk correctly.”
― Khalid
“Being timeless means you can listen to something when you’re feeling a certain way, and it still has that same power as it did when you listened to the record for the first time. Timeless is abnormal. It sticks out. It can’t be recreated.”
― Khalid
“I started writing out all of my feelings, and people asked me, ‘Have you ever thought of recording your music?’ It was something I’d always thought of, but I’d never really had the confidence.”
― Khalid
“I want to venture out into music education for kids. As a child, I was discouraged by a lack of money, and now I want to use my platform to give back to kids without resources.”
― Khalid
“A lot of people feel pressured by the outside influences, whether it’s your job, whether it’s school. But who says you can’t take care of that stuff and still be young?”
― Khalid
“I’m still proud of who I am, of my youth, and I feel like now, as individuals, we begin to realise that we can change the future. We all have to participate.”
― Khalid
“I definitely associate songs with the places that I’ve been.”
― Khalid
“My high school was what crafted my interest in recording.”
― Khalid
“Joel Little and I have this certain chemistry we have when we work together.”
― Khalid
“Lorde is awesome. She’s amazing. She’s so talented. We went on tour in Europe, and it was the greatest time of my life.”
― Khalid
“I always try to keep my friends within my music. I always play them all of the songs, and they are my biggest critics, and they love it, so that’s a good sign.”
― Khalid
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