"Kehlani has arrived at a career apex without compromising her values. At last week's Grammy Awards she implored her fellow artists to speak out against injustice and ended her acceptance speec h for Best R&B Performance with a resounding "fuck ICE.""
""If y'all see me drunk, don't say nothin'. It was AI," she joked as she invited the audience to the afterparty at San Francisco's 1015 Folsom. After performing an intimate rendition of "Everything," where she stood at the mic stand and let her voice drip with devotion, Kehlani teased a snippet of an unreleased song from her forthcoming album, another ode to all-consuming love with the refrain, "There's no such thing as I love you too much.""
"Along with the ballad "Out the Window," whose music video shows Kehlani literally dropping to her knees in the rain, this section of the set highlighted how exquisitely her songwriting conveys the aching feeling of yearning. The thousands-deep crowd of mostly Latinas, Filipinas and Black women in stylish sportswear and Y2K glamour cathartically belted along to the hits and deep cuts alike."
Last month 'Folded' reached No. 6 on Billboard, marking Kehlani's biggest hit to date after prior collaborations with Cardi B and Justin Bieber. Last year she faced concert cancellations after criticisms of Israel, received death threats, and moved out of her house for safety. At the Grammys she called on artists to speak out against injustice and ended her Best R&B Performance acceptance speech with "fuck ICE." In San José she avoided politics, embraced the Super Bowl celebratory mood, joked about being 'AI' if seen drunk, performed intimate renditions, teased a new love song, and led a diverse, predominantly female crowd in cathartic singalongs.
Read at Kqed
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