Khalid Shares New Song "Eleven"

Khalid has returned with his first new song of 2020, "Eleven."

January 9, 2020

Khalid has returned with his first new song of the year in "Eleven." The smooth track follows what was a big 2019 for the 21-year-old singer, who earned his first No. 1 album with Free Spirit. The track, which is accompanied by a hazy lyric video, sees Khalid in more of a reflective mood.

To coincide with the new song, Khalid spoke with Zane Lowe about how the track came together. "This one I wanted to do something different," he explained. "My mom lives, breathes, sleeps R&B music, so I really feel like this is the ode to just people who came before me, and I really love the song. It reminds me of that Timbaland era and Aaliyah and music just felt so good. You just wanted to turn it on and just drive just to nowhere."

The song includes what Khalid has called "hidden" ad-libs from Craig David. "He definitely has the ad lib that's just fly and it's soaring across the song and I feel like it really makes it what it was in the first place," he told Lowe. Additionally, he teased that he's interested in dropping an EP later this year, but he plans to take time with his next full-length project. As for who he wants to work with, he said that he'd love to work on something with Bloc Party and Clairo.

The release of "Eleven" follows "Up All Night," which Khalid shared back in November. Before that, he collaborated with Major Lazer for the Death Stranding soundtrack with "Trigger," which saw him push his sound into more of a club context.

Recently, Spotify revealed that Khalid made the list of most-streamed artists in 2019, coming behind Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Drake, and Post Malone. Free Spirit, which topped the Billboard 200 chart with 202,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, also made Spotify's list of most-streamed albums in the United States.