Blue Water Road

Kehlani And Justin Bieber Keep Each Other ‘Up At Night’ On Their New Single

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Ahead of the release of their hotly anticipated third album, Blue Water Road, Kehlani has premiered their Justin Bieber-assisted collaboration, “Up At Night.”

On “Up At Night,” Kehlani sings of love and infatuation over a cooing, thumping groove, offering a throwback vibe that still manages to feel ahead of its time. The Biebs comes in on the second verse, promising someone, presumably his wife Hailey, “even when the sun don’t shine, I’ll be right by your side.”

“It’s about having a healthily obsessed relationship,” said Kehlani of the song in a statement. “You’re telling someone, ‘I love you so much it keeps me awake at night’. I love what Justin did, and it’s such a fun one to dance to.”

“Up At Night” marks the pair’s second collaboration, their first being “Get Me” from Bieber’s 2020 album, Changes.

Blue Water Road is Kehlani’s first album since confirming they prefer to use they/them pronouns. The bulk of the album was written and produced with Pop Wansel while the singer was on vacation.

Check out “Up At Night” above.

Blue Water Road is out 4/29 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kehlani Reveals The Album Art And Release Date For ‘Blue Water Road’: ‘I’m Giving Everyone Access’

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Kehlani 2021 Governors Ball
Getty Image / Jason Mendez

Kehlani has revealed the artwork and release date for their much-anticipated third studio album, Blue Water Road. The album, executive-produced by Pop Wansel, arrives next month.

“Blue Water Road is a destination in my mind,” Kehlani says in a statement. “I’m giving everyone access. It’s an emotional journey, a sexual journey, and a spiritual journey. To me, the album is like a glass house. It’s light, transparent, and the sun is shining right through it.”

Kehlani began writing the album in September of 2020 while renting an Airbnb in Malibu with close friends and collaborators. After their vacation, they rented another home with Wansel to experiment with new sounds for the record. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the “Altar” singer revealed that the songs they wrote were originally planned for a deluxe edition of their sophomore album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t.

“We just made so much cool sh*t, and it was so different from what I would consider to be able to be on the deluxe because it didn’t sound anything like it,” they said “I just was like, ‘F*ck it, this is a whole new project.’”

Blue Water Road is out 4/29 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kehlani Shared The Second Single From ‘Blue Water Road,’ With the Black And White ‘Little Story’ Video

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Following up their second album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, from 2020, Kehlani is already prepping a new project, Blue Water Road. After sharing a trailer for the album back in September, the R&B star released the “Altar” video shortly after, but has been quiet on the subject of their own new music for the last few months, though they did collaborate with Young Bleu on “Beautiful Lies” and appeared in his video. They did confirm to fans that moving forward, Kehlani prefers “they/them” as a pronoun and identifies as gender neutral. “I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they,’ Kehlani said in an interview. “It feels like… you really see me.”

Today, Kehlani is back in album mode and shared another preview from Blue Water Road, this one called “Little Story.” In the black and white clip, Kehlani moves through a formal backstage setup, and into a more tumultuous position where she’s hanging upside down on monkey bars. After the song begins with a more fluid verse, she gets a little more staccato on the chorus, as the song opens up with heavier percussion and closes out with an epic swell of violins. Check it out above.

Kehlani Confirms That They Prefer Gender Neutral Pronouns

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Kehlani GRID
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This past April, Kehlani came out as on an Instagram Live video. “I am gay, g-gay, gay, gay,” they later said on TikTok back then. We might learn more about this lifestyle embrace when their new album, Blue Water Road, is released at some point this winter. In fact, Kehlani has even said that the new music “feels vastly different than anything I’ve ever created before.”

The press rounds in the lead up to Blue Water Road have begun and in a cover story with beauty and style magazine Byrdie, the R&B star said that the new album “talks about love and coming into gayness.” In the revealing interview, Kehlani talks about notions of beauty, motherhood, fame, writing love songs, and of course, identity. Early on in the story, Kehlani addresses pronouns and how while “she” is acceptable, “they” just feels better.

“I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they.” For Kehlani, using non-binary pronouns feels like an earned respect. “It feels like… you really see me.”

It’s great to see Kehlani embracing who they are and how they would like to be seen. You can read the full profile here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kehlani Says Her Upcoming Album Is ‘Vastly Different’ From Anything She’s Written Before

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Kehlani announced her upcoming album Blue Water Road in a highly conceptual way. She unveiled the LP’s title with an eerie trailer, which teases a winter release date. The singer’s album announcement was different from how she’s publicized projects in the past, but that’s because this LP is apparently “vastly different” from what she’s written before.

Kehlani discussed her different direction in Rolling Stone‘s Musicians On Musicians series in an interview with Alicia Keys. The singer even notes that she wouldn’t put it in the same genre as her other albums:

“I’m about to drop music that, to me, feels vastly different than anything I’ve ever created. I wouldn’t call it the same genre sonically as I’ve done before. And I’m scared about it because I’m like, ‘Y’all may receive it and just feel like Kehlani is dropping another project.’ And to me, I’m making a pivot creatively because it was something I always wanted to do with people I always wanted to do it with.”

The singer went on to note that she’s nervous to see people’s reactions to the project, but hopes to take the feedback in stride. “I guess I just be nervous, but I had to also stop psyching myself out,” she continued. “I try to look from this big bird’s-eye view of like, ‘Well, I’m probably going to drop like five more albums. I’m going to have this experience a bunch of more times, don’t freak out, be like water, let it come out. Let people think whatever they think.’ I try to always come back to the emotion that I felt when I was creating it.”

Read Rolling Stone‘s full Musicians On Musicians profile with Kehlani and Alicia Keys here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kehlani Puts Her Crush On An ‘Altar’ In Her Cottagecore-Inspired Video

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After serving up her While We Wait album in 2019 and It Was Good Until It Wasn’t LP in 2020, Kehlani is gearing up for yet another release in 2021. The Bay Area singer returned this week to tease her upcoming Blue Water Road release, which she has now previewed with the new love struck single “Altar.”

Directed by Kid Studio, the opulent video leans into the recently popularized cottagecore aesthetic, filled with flowing outfits, colorful flowers, and rustic decor. Kehlani and her crush delicately dance around the small house until nightfall and the room is filled with the warm glow of candlelight.

Speaking about the new single and video in a statement, Kehlai said it’s dedicated to the ones she’s loved loved and lost. “To all those i have lost, all the angels i have gained, all those that walk with me with hands cracking my chest open, this is for you. i love you,” she wrote.

Ahead of the “Altar” visual’s release, Kehlani announced her Blue Water Road album with an eerie trailer. It opened with the singer stranded on a deserted dirt road with an injured leg. A dragonfly lands on her hand and instantly burst into flames. So far, Kehlani hasn’t shared a solid release date for the upcoming album, but she did note that it’s slated for a winter release.

Watch Kehlani’s “Altar” video above.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kehlani Announces Her New Album ‘Blue Water Road’ With A Beguiling Trailer

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Kehlani, the Bay Area singer who helped to launch a revival of R&B with her mixtapes Cloud 19 and You Should Be Here and continued to carry the flag while breaking new ground with albums SweetSexySavage and It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, is preparing to release her new album, Blue Water Road, this winter. She announced the album with a beguiling trailer which is sure to spark curiosity for what appears to be a highly conceptual project.

The cinematic clip shows a snippet of a larger, magical narrative, opening on a closeup of a demolished statue and pulling away to the singer nursing a bloody leg injury as she traverses a barren landscape via a deserted dirt road. She encounters a buzzing insect, which she catches, but the bug bursts into flame, causing her to drop it on the ground. When it lands, a group of vines bursts from the gravel to collect its remains, then Kehlani is overshadowed by something that rises up in front of her off-camera before a smash cut to black and title cards reading “Blue Water Road. Coming This Winter.”

Watch the trailer for Kehlani’s new album Blue Water Road above.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.