Growing up as a military child, Khalid had to move a lot. He first found his interest in music when he was four and started singing when he could pronounce words, and his mom had a big influence on this part of his life. Sgt Linda Wolfe had ambitions on being an R&B singer in the 1990’s; however, with family and a career opportunity, it brought her to the army. Without this action in her life I feel like Khalid wouldn’t have found himself as artistically and his personality as long with his love in music and he even stated that by saying “Growing up with my mom was the foundation of my interest in music….” Him moving to El Paso was what sparked the flame for him, he recorded almost all of his songs there. All of his songs have very nice and smooth chords and are really catchy. I’m gonna be talking about the top three songs in this album that I think are the songs that make this album and go into his life the deepest which include Saved, Young Dumb and Broke, and Location.

“Saved” is a nice mix of a slow song sound with a bit of rap, this song wasn’t as much of a hit as the next one’s I’m going to list but it still is really important. He made this song after he and a girl met in El Paso had to break up because of distance issues. He moved to New York from El Paso and both of them soon found out that the relationship is not necessary. It came to him when they never saw each other, and he in the song the lyrics can explain it a lot more, “I’ll keep your number saved cause I hope one day you’ll get the sense to call me, I’m hoping that you’ll say you’re missing me the way I’m missing you….” He really didn’t want to break up but the lack of communication and not seeing her face to face wouldn’t work out, he uses the lyrics “I hope you’ll finally realize that I was the only one who cared”, then later in the song  said “but all your stuff is gone, I erased all the pictures from my phone of me and you….” The big part of this though is he still is so attached to her, he has to keep her number.

“Young Dumb and Broke” has very upbeat chords and he wanted to use this song to convince a girl he liked that there was nothing wrong with being a young, dumb, and broke high schooler. Growing up as a military kid he started to understand that relationships don’t last very long. Producers ended up hearing his first song “location” which they heard from an app called SoundCloud. Anyone can upload their own songs too the app so it's kind of difficult to get noticed, but once people heard him, they knew there was something special about him. The thing that is so cool about khalid is he puts so much of his heart, relationship experiences, his ups and downs, and the dark times in his life as motivation then uses them in a very effective, healthy, and unique ways. The producers knew after this hit that he was going to be able to make more. One day he even made two songs and one of them was made in half an hour. Knowing that, I feel like he’s super dedicated to making music. I think saved is a very big part of the album but not quite the best.

“Location” is a nice smooth tone and really flows all together. He made this song mostly on his life, he said “it's just a story of searching for something that we all want in life no matter who we are and that's a genuine lover, but it doesn’t come to easy…” The nice thing about this song is his mom helped him with the harmony and this meant so much too him and that’s why this song is one of his favorite he made. The first time he heard the songs beat he knew right away it would be about a relationship. He said in an interview that the lyrics were inspired by a girl back in El Paso, but he liked something about her, he just didn’t know. He also said “we all had an emotional barrier and there was always a sense of distance between us….” I feel like this song was the one that made him skyrocket and someone helped him get this song out there a little more than it already was. Kylie Jenner was hanging out with her friends one day and they heard his song, soon they made a video of them dancing to it.

I feel like with these three songs it makes the album, yeah his other songs are good but these songs really brought out the most of him. He started out as a military kid that moved a lot and has had hard relationships, but music was the way out for him, starting to sing at four all the way up to today at nine-teen. If he didn’t have the courage to release his first song he probably wouldn’t be where he is right now. I find his music calming but as it goes on it builds up the adrenaline that makes everyone want to sing along and dance to the beat. Starting with his first and I think best “Location” to singing “Saved” which is about this amazing relationship he wanted to keep but can’t, then bringing it to the point where he tries to explain that there’s nothing wrong with “Young Dumb and Broke” high school kids. I find him to be a very unique and inspirational singer because of how much of his life he puts into it. Khalid is still very young so I hope to hear more of him and his unique stories, songs, and just all around his amazing music.