Being outed as gay by his ex-boyfriend helped Khalid realize something: his music is universal. Speaking to Billboard, he shared the moment he noticed his fans’ reaction to his music hadn’t changed with the news about his sexuality.
“I had a moment where I walked out and I looked into the crowd, and I’m singing these songs that — I was obviously gay when I wrote them, but the world may not have known,” Khalid recalls. “Everybody is singing them the same way they were before I was outed! So [that shows me] none of my fans care about my sexual preferences. I think they care about our mutual respect for music.”
Khalid described the experience as liberating, noting it showed him he can be 100% himself “and still be embraced and appreciated.”
While Khalid wants to inspire young Black men to be open about their sexuality, he makes it clear he’s not targeting a specific audience with his music.
“Music is subjective,” he says. “If you place yourself in an experience, we can relate to people all across the board. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, it doesn’t matter if you’re straight. We all have feelings and we all have emotions.”
In his new era of music, Khalid wants to show fans he’s not as private and serious as he once portrayed.
“I’m actually extremely extroverted,” he says. “I love to socialize, I love to hang out, I love to see new things and meet new people.”
“I had my fair share of time to be serious,” Khalid continues. “Now I don’t have a care in the world. I can just have fun.”
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