Khalid is ready to tell his story, on his terms.
Last year, the singer-songwriter was outed by an ex on social media. The freedom he’s since found in embracing his sexuality publicly unlocked an even deeper well of creativity, though, and the experience informed his forthcoming album After the Sun Goes Down (out Friday, Oct. 10).
“This album wouldn’t have come to be if I wasn’t outed,” Khalid, 27, says in the new issue of PEOPLE.
After breaking out in 2016, Khalid became an industry darling, garnering five Grammy nominations and becoming a go-to duet partner for everyone from Ed Sheeran to Billie Eilish (see sidebar). But when he recorded his first three albums, he was holding back.
Courtesy Sophie Jones
“I wanted to give enough of myself where I felt like I wasn’t completely hiding, but I didn’t want to give too much where I felt exposed,” says Khalid, who has been out to his family and friends for years — and privately dated men. “As an artist, sometimes you do find the pressure to create yourself to be accepted by all sides.”
On Nov. 22, 2024, Khalid confirmed he was gay online after he was outed on X (formerly Twitter). Today he calls the incident “a blessing in disguise.”
At the time, though, “I was caught off guard. I think what’s so nasty about it all is that my own story got stripped away from me,” he adds. “I decided I’m just going to choose to love who I am unconditionally because it’s all I got on this earth.”
RCA Records
That sense of liberation fueled the making of After the Sun Goes Down. He started writing songs like the ones that inspired him when he was young. “I wanted to make music that I like to listen to myself,” Khalid says. “It’s like a huge ode to just the beautiful icons that come before me. Singing a melody of a Britney [Spears] song or watching a Rihanna video really charged my freedom of expression as a child. I’ve always dreamt of being this pop star. I really tapped into that little boy and gave him his shine that he always wanted.”
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Indeed, he channels those divas — and flexes his pop-star muscle — in his new “Out of Body” music video.
“I’m doing some very naughty things,” Khalid says of the video, in which he gets hot and heavy with a male backup dancer as he sings of a steamy tryst over a slinky beat reminiscent of early-aughts Spears. “When it was done, you watch the screen, and you gag at yourself. I’m like, ‘Hold on, that’s me? Wow!’ ”
The racy visuals, like After the Sun Goes Down, are a departure for the self-described shy guy, who rose to fame with earnest pop-R&B hits like 2017’s “Young Dumb & Broke.”
“This album is a celebration of being out and a representation of my queerness,” Khalid says. “My friends listen to the new music and are like, ‘Khalid, who is this guy? What is this side of you?’ It’s vulnerability, in a sense; I’m embracing my sexuality — relentlessly, fearlessly.”
For more on Khalid, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
