Khalid Debuts His New Single, ‘New Normal,’ At Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Space Flight Launch

For some time after he released his sophomore album Free Spirit, Khalid kept things rather quiet on the music side of things. The singer shared a few singles in the two years that followed, but things have been picking up as of late for the Texas-bred singer. With his third album hopefully on the way, Khalid is back with new music and his latest is an effort titled, “New Normal.” As of right now, the track has not been officially released but the singer debuted it during a performance at Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space flight launch on Sunday.

Prior to its release, Khalid shared with Rolling Stone that the song served as his “personal therapy” last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Around this time last year, I was super fascinated and gravitated toward space,” he added, tying in the song with the space flight launch. “I was watching this comet by the name of Neowise last year, and space travel is something that I’ve always been interested in as well. And I’ve been going through the motions of understanding this new, postmodern future that’s coming together, especially when it comes down to technology — it’s something that really excites me.”

Prior to debuting the new song, Khalid teamed with Tate McRae for their collaboration, “Working.” Khalid also connected with J Balvin for “Otra Noche Sin Ti.”

Watch the performance at the 60:20:12 mark in the video above.

Khalid Will Perform A New Song, ‘New Normal,’ To Celebrate Virgin Galactic’s 22nd Space Flight

The first Virgin Galactic Spaceflight is set to launch this weekend, and one of the Earth’s biggest terrestrial stars has a new song coming to celebrate the occasion. Khalid, the baritone-voiced Texan who most recently released “Working” in collaboration with Tate McRae, will be putting out “New Normal” on July 21, commemorating the landing of the Unity 22 crew after the 22nd flight test for VSS Unity. He’ll also perform the song live on stage for its debut.

Khalid told Rolling Stone, “Around this time last year, I was super fascinated and gravitated toward space. I was watching this comet by the name of Neowise last year, and space travel is something that I’ve always been interested in as well. And I’ve been going through the motions of understanding this new, postmodern future that’s coming together, especially when it comes down to technology — it’s something that really excites me.”

He called the song his “personal therapy,” writing it to help him cope with the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. As he explained to Rolling Stone, I had to come to terms with who I was as an individual and the type of person that I wanted to be. And to me, this song, it just embodies hope for the outcome of our future.”

The launch stream will go live at 7:00 am MDT/9:00 am EDT on the day of the flight at Virgin Galactic.com and on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.