Kehlani’s new self-titled album has debuted at No 4 on the Billboard 200.
The singer’s new project, which marks her fourth top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200, sold 69,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. This makes it the biggest debut from a female R&B singer this year.
Kehlani came out on Apr. 24. A day after its release, Kehlani came to a Complex Pop-Up to meet fans and take photos with people who purchased the album. She posted about the experience on Instagram, writing, “Everybody is outside; they’ve been here since 5:30 in the morning in the rain. I love you for that, New York. You’re so real.”
Kehlani is the singer’s first release since she dropped the 2024 mixtape, While We Wait 2. The project is supported by her extremely popular single, “Folded,” which won her the Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song at this year’s ceremony.
The singer previously told us about her creative process for making Kehlani, explaining that she recalled some emotions that she needed to work through.
“I went and locked myself in the room, and I started randomly processing a bunch of things from 2020,” she revealed. “I started making all this weird music. All this dark, weird, and emotional shit with my engineer.”
Once she went through that, Kehlani explained that she received a sign from the universe that she was working on something special. "When I went back to Los Angeles, I knew what time it was,” she said. “Weeks later came [eventual top 10 hit and Grammy-winning track] ‘Folded.’ I knew, ‘Oh, something’s happening.’”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Kehlani spoke about how Nick Cannon positively impacted her early career by helping her out when she needed it. “Nick Cannon called and was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what you got going on, but come to LA and make some music, and I’ll give you some studio time,’” Kehlani said. “I’d never even had my own room before.”
Kehlani added that it’s not just her that has a “secret ‘Nick Cannon saved my life’ story. “[Other artists] reach out to me and be like ‘You know, Nick did the same thing for me,’ and I’m like, what?” Kehlani said, calling him a “great guy.”
