American pop vocalist and songwriter Khalid’s take on contemporary R&B is a soulful and youthful one. With the release of his debut album *American Teen* in the spring of 2017, the Georgia-born, internationally-raised and eventually New York-based teen frames delicate emotions and social anxieties with new-wave melodies for the artfully unsure, with smatterings of ’80s Japanese pop, the lo-fi and reflective ennui of artists such as The Weeknd and Sampha, and syrupy harmonic rushes that fill up the soul. In 2018, _American Teen_ went double platinum and Khalid was nominated for five Grammy Awards, marking his breakthrough into the US R&B mainstream.
