Khalid Robinson, more commonly known as Khalid, will turn 20 on Monday. The singer/songwriter with numerous Top 100 tracks and Grammy nominations is just two months younger than me, but while our levels of the average success thus far in our lives does not quite equal up, Khalid’s most recent EP Suncity resonates with every young adult through far more than just the smooth beats.
Suncity goes deeper. It expresses Khalid’s experience as a young, confused late teen trying to figure out life and love. He sings about relationship struggles and triumphs that everyone faces, and some are lucky to overcome.
In Saturday Nights he sings about his relationship with a girl, and how that relationship is better than her’s and her parents.
The refrain opens up with, “And all the things that I know / That your parents don’t / They don’t care like I do / Nowhere like I do,” as he continues to sing about the dreams she has and family issues she faces.
The straightforwardness of this song is what makes it so beautifully relatable to his audience. We all have relationships that blossom into so much more than casual small talk. We sit in parked cars and cry our eyes out to our significant others or drive off to school and tell our roommates all about our family drama back home while we eat ice cream on the couch. They see us through it. They support us. They make us feel cared for and heard.
We are also often in Khalid’s shoes. Angry at how unfair our friends are treated, and frustrated because all we want is for them to achieve their dreams and be happy.
Khalid’s Saturday Nights portrays the love we as young adults have for those around us, and the love we feel from them. While often not much can be done about it, for it is hard to chose your parents, we should be reassured in knowing that the struggle of wanting better for your friends is something we all experience. The best we can do at this point in time is be there to sit and listen to them as they let their struggles out, and know that they would do the same for us.
The Found of Music 