From TN roots to queer visibility, Khalid’s latest chapter

Khalid will hit the stage in Nashville as a part of his first solo tour since 2019. After a music industry hiatus and coming out, he’s in his most fearless chapter yet.

Before Khalid was belting out “Location” on arena stages, he was just a little kid chilling in a cul-de-sac in Clarksville, Tennessee.

“All my childhood memories at the parks and racing down the street … that all lives in Clarksville,” the R&B-pop singer-songwriter said during a Zoom interview.

Now age 28, Khalid Donnel Robinson has come a long way from his early childhood outside of Nashville.

He skyrocketed to fame in 2016 with his diamond-certified breakout single “Location.” Since then he has garnered seven Grammy nominations plus collaborated with Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish and Halsey. His smooth, honeyed baritone pioneered an alternative-R&B wave.

In recent years, Khalid has embraced his queer identity after being publicly outed. Immediately, he used his platform to promote self-love and LGBTQ+ visibility.

Now, Khalid is on his “After the Sun Goes Down Tour,” his first solo tour run since 2019.

“I’m coming into myself as an artist,” he said. “People who saw me perform in 2019 will be seeing a completely new artist in 2026, but with the same nostalgic songs.”

On Wednesday, June 3, he will venture back to the stage in the state where it all began, performing at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium.

‘Nashville just does it differently.’

Now based in Los Angeles, Khalid smiled as he reminisced about his time in Tennessee from 2000 to 2006.

His mom was in the military, stationed at nearby Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

“I went to Barkley Elementary … one of my best friends, she currently still lives in Clarksville to this day,” he said. Afterwards, the life of a military brat took Khalid to Germany, then New York, then Texas. “I love the journey that I’ve lived,” he added.

But there’s always those places that really stick out in your memory, Khalid said, and Tennessee is one for him.

Decades later, Khalid wrote “Beautiful People” with Ed Sheeran in Nashville.

He has also spent his fair share of time on country music stages singing alongside Kane Brown, who he has collaborated with on three songs, including Brown’s 2025 tune “Rescue.”

“Nashville just does it differently,” he said, adding he would love to try his hand at writing a folk music album here one day.

‘I found my passion again. I found my spark.’

The tour marks a major return to the stage for Khalid, who took a three-year hiatus from the music industry after the release of his sophomore album “Free Spirit” in 2019.

Khalid said he wasn’t prepared for the level of success he’d achieved as a 19-year-old.

“I was that one teenager who was like, ‘What party are we going to tonight? Where is the location?’ and documenting these things as this live audio journal,” he said, nodding to his hit “Location,” which is about finding the next party location.

“When I came into a fame, it wasn’t like I was trained for it,” he said. “I kind of lost the glimmer.”

During his time away, Khalid chose normalcy.

“I was falling in and out of love and hopping in cars and driving six hours to different a different city, and meeting people, getting an Airbnb, staying somewhere that I’d never seen before,” he said.

“I had to live life to write about life.”

Then the songs poured out of him. He penned more than 50 songs in one year.

‘A lot of my writing has always been queer.’

In 2024, Khalid released his album “Sincere,” which included the hit “Please Don’t Fall In Love With Me.”

Months later, Khalid was outed by an ex-lover on X.

At the time, he addressed the situation with a simple post: “I got outted and the world still continues to turn,” he wrote. “I am not ashamed of my sexuality!”

In October 2025, Khalid released the 17-track album “After The Sun Goes Down,” his first project since publicly coming out.

In it, Khalid dives into self-discovery and freedom, writing songs about queer love, lust and sex.

“Although I didn’t come out on my own terms, I feel like I really leaned into the fearlessness of it all with embracing it,” he said. “I don’t want to regress. I don’t want to go backwards. I don’t want to get thrown back into the closet.”

Khalid’s earlier work had ambient textures and breezy, atmospheric production. He was one of the first artists to blend lo-fi elements with classic R&B, creating a “late-night-drive” sound.

In his recent record, Khalid departs from that sound, trading slow-tempo R&B for club-ready dance-pop that pays homage to 2000s icons like Brittany Spears and Janet Jackson.

“It’s real,” Khalid said of his new album. “A lot of my writing has always been queer, it’s just been ambiguous,” he explained.

“It’s one thing to be like: ‘I’m gonna write a song based off of love. To then be like, ‘I’m gonna write a song about how this one dude broke my heart to a million pieces’ — it’s just different. It comes from a different place.”

Khalid’s recent hit “Out of Body” dropped alongside a steamy music video that went viral. It marked a visible turning point in his career and a new era of sexual liberation.

“I’m just gonna be myself completely, and I’m not gonna think about what people have to say about it,” he said.

After “Out of Body,” Khalid has joined the ranks of R&B and hip-hop stars who’ve changed the game for LGBTQ+ representation in the genre, like Lil Nas X and Frank Ocean.

“It feels incredible to be accepted into this club just so many fearless and just inspirational artists. Frank Ocean was, and still is, one of my biggest inspirations. I saw myself in him when I was too afraid,” he said.

“Now I can also be one of the people who inspire the next person, the next artist, to come out.”