Singer Khalid breaks decade of silence on the tragic loss of his father
Music superstar Khalid's new album concealed an extraordinary secret that he's carried since childhood - until now.
Singer songwriter Khalid has been raw and vulnerable about pretty much everything in his life through his decade in music.
There’s one thing so personal however that he has kept it to himself … until now.
“I think a lot of my fans don’t even know that my father is dead and I speak about it in a way where I kind of recall the moments of depression,” the American told Confidential, speaking about his new album, After The Sun Goes Down.
“I say in a lyric, ‘dipping my head underwater, holding my breath thinking of the unknown’, even thinking of the afterlife, thinking of just so many possibilities, and I think by taking myself there for this album showed that I’m in a liberated sense of life where I’m fully acceptant of the journey and where these roads are leading me.”
The five-time Grammy Award nominee is referring to his song, Hurt People, in which he details the tragic loss of his father when he was “in second grade”.
It is, he said, “the most potent, emotionally vulnerable” track on the album.
“I’m speaking about the grief of my father and I haven’t spoken about that on a public level,” he explained.
“Years ago I would have never felt comfortable enough to be like, ‘yeah, I’m gonna sing a song and I’m going to tell everyone that my dad died in the second grade in the first verse’.
“To be able to be that raw, to be able to be that vulnerable, to be able to be that honest, really does speak about the place that I am in mentally, but it speaks about the journey that it’s taken me to get here through the storms that I’ve had to face.”
He continued: “I think that that’s what we really crave as listeners, is authenticity, is an honest story, and so being 10 years into a career, it’s like, okay, well, what else do you talk about? So I’m like, let’s talk about the real shit that I keep to myself and I like speak about in my head. It was a, f*** it, why not moment.”
The muso, whose full name is Khalid Donnel Robinson, has a massive global following with millions on his Instagram account alone.
He’s collaborated with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Tate McRae, Post Malone, SZA and Marshmello.
“I feel like I’ve never really been that afraid to talk about the things that we all face as a society,” he said. “So I’m just happy to be able to be kind of like a voice, like a gateway, like a door.”
Australian fans are his most devoted – he has his largest streaming reach here, and has visited many times, the most recent being in 2024 when he played two gigs at the Sydney Opera House.
“I don’t know what the connection is but it’s always been so unique to me,” he said.
“I don t question it, I embrace it and I think I give that love back. The love that Australia gives me is just, I speak about it immensely, I just really appreciate it and when a place loves you that much you have to give love back. I really do genuinely have a love for Australia and I see it every day, like my top city on earth is Sydney, so there’s a reason.”
He is yet to announce a tour for this album, although Australia is top of the list of stops.
“It just makes the most sense.”
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Originally published as Singer Khalid breaks decade of silence on the tragic loss of his father
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