On the 12th of October, Khalid was set to perform in Amsterdam. Back in 2019, Khalid performed in the Ziggo Dome. This year he scaled back a little to the AFAS Live. Around the same time last year, his most recent album after the sun goes down was released. ‘It’s Always Summer Somewhere’ is the tour that followed. The first leg of the tour was through North America and a few months later Europe and Asia got their part.
Khalid’s most popular songs are from his earlier work. The big question before the show was if he would focus on his latest work or if he’d still perform all of his hits. The show started with Khalid performing two songs from his album Suncity: ‘Motion’ and ‘Better’, then followed by ‘8TEEN’. The stage had a very simple set-up. It was just a simple backdrop with his logo, two musicians and two dancers. It was all to support him, nothing elaborate to distract from the main artist on stage.
Khalid mentioned how it has been almost 10 years since his debut album American Teen dropped. It is a major milestone for the album that was the start of his career. The next song he introduced by saying it is a very special song to him. The song is called ‘lovely’, arguably his biggest song and collaboration (with Billie Eilish) was met with a ton of enthusiasm from the audience. When Khalid played his collaboration with Marshmello, ‘Silence’, more and more people in the room stood from their place to dance. The song got them to clap along louder and louder. Later, Khalid said he saw a lot of love in the room. He told the crowd twice about how he loved them more.
When Khalid sang ‘Location’, he asked the crowd to sing along. The crowd was mostly unresponsive at first but slowly followed his lead later. It was as if the crowd was too shy to sing without his guidance. Khalid did not seem bothered by the lack of response, as he put in his best effort to “keep the vibes rolling” as he said so himself. Despite it not being a Saturday night, Khalid wanted to perform ‘Saturday Nights’ and he succeeded to get some energy back from the crowd. He said “Amsterdam, I care!” and waved at the crowd and the crowd responded to wave back at him.
It was a little earlier than expected when he announced after playing ‘Talk’ that he had one more song to perform. He ended the show with ‘Young Dumb & Broke’. He ended the show almost 15 minutes earlier than the estimated ending time. The conclusion to the earlier question is that he did in fact play most of his older hits. He played more of his older hits than he played his newer work. The crowd seemed to be content with this decision, as the hits are how the people know the artist. It was a wonderful night of music and some nostalgia.
