People

Kehlani’s Grammy Wins Honor the Modern R&B Icon
By James Moreau | 27 Mar, 2026

From America’s Got Talent to a Grammy-winning artist, Kehlani has shaped today’s R&B.

Multi-platinum artist Kehlani has defined the modern R&B era with a genre-bending sound that reflects her diverse roots and Filipino heritage.

Her most critically acclaimed single “Folded” earned Grammy wins in 2026 for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song and reached number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 – the first of her tracks to reach the top 10.

Kehlani previously released studio albums Crash in 2024, Blue Water Road in 2022 and It Was Good Until It Wasn’t in 2020, all of which entered the top 25 on the Billboard 200.

In 2019, she released her third commercial mixtape While We Wait, which featured the massive hit “Nights Like This” featuring Ty Dolla $ign.  This is her most streamed song on Spotify with over 725 million plays.

Kehlani’s debut studio album SweetSexySavage, released in 2017, featured “Gangsta,” which gained popularity for its use in the film Suicide Squad.  That same year, the high-energy track “Good Life” featuring G-Eazy was featured on the soundtrack for The Fate of the Furious.

The 30-year-old first captured the nation’s attention as a high schooler in 2011 as a finalist on America’s Got Talent with the Oakland-based pop group PopLyfe.