Touring has helped Khalid shed some anxiety about performing. Photographed by Ed and Deanna Templeton, Vogue, July 2018 вЂњI had a lazy son, you hear me? He was lazy.вЂќ (вЂњBut IвЂ™ll keep your number saved/вЂ™Cause I hope one day youвЂ™ll get the sense to call me,вЂќ Khalid sings.) вЂњI would hear him singing in the bathroom-very, very, very loudly,вЂќ Wolfe tells me, вЂњbut I had no idea he was writing songs, that he had that capability, until he let me hear вЂSaved.вЂ™ вЂќ Wolfe was floored. Like вЂњLocation,вЂќ the song gestures to love and dating and the digital detritus of an expired relationship. Then he recorded вЂњSaved,вЂќ a melancholy вЂњone that got awayвЂќ ballad inspired by the girlfriend he had left behind in New York, in a garage studio in El Paso. He began posting raw voice notes, captured with the voice-memo app on his phone, on Twitter. Khalid wrote throughout his senior year, pouring into his compositions the loneliness and longing-but also the exuberance and hope-of being a high-schooler. I looked up to her and wanted to do what she was doing.вЂќ вЂњI just sat in that hospital bed and I thought, Damn, I need to do something to change the way my life is going.вЂќ He started writing music-partly as therapy, he says. Then a car accident landed Khalid in the hospital, and while the incident wasnвЂ™t serious (or his fault-he was in the backseat), it made him think about how he was spending his time. вЂњWhen all of the celebrities started putting it on their Instagram,вЂќ KhalidвЂ™s mother, Linda Wolfe, tells me, вЂњwe knew that it was something.вЂќ The single now has more than 280 million plays on YouTube. People began to recognize Khalid on the street. Within two weeks of her endorsement, the song blew up in El Paso. On graduation day, Kylie Jenner, who has been known to boost artists from relative obscurity to the top of the charts, shared KhalidвЂ™s song вЂњLocationвЂќ on Snapchat. In the weeks following prom, the momentum behind his music continued to build. вЂњBut I did it in a way I felt was deserving, because IвЂ™m a decent human being and not some superevil kid who just came in and was like, вЂWhoop! Now itвЂ™s mine!вЂ™ вЂќ ItвЂ™s a golden late afternoon, and Khalid is smiling and avoiding my eyes, both kidding and not. His photo shoot has wrapped, and weвЂ™re sitting inside the wardrobe trailer at a beach just south of Los Angeles. вЂњI stole their joy,вЂќ Khalid, now 20, tells me. After he was crowned, the prom queen refused to dance with him. Khalid released some of his captivating, melodic songs online ahead of the big night and started getting the kind of music-industry attention not usually directed at high school seniors. Kids start angling for the honor in middle school, so when the singer-songwriter Khalid-then just an eighteen-year-old recent transplant from New York-joined the fray, it rubbed a few of his classmates the wrong way. Getting elected prom king in El Paso is a big deal.

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