First stream to first stadium: Kehlani’s First on SoundCloud story

Before Kehlani was R&B’s hottest emerging star, she was Oakland’s Kehlani Parrish, the fourteen-year-old lead vocalist for a local pop cover band, PopLyfe. The band auditioned for the sixth season of America’s Got Talent and eventually finished fourth, thanks in large part to Kehlani’s undeniable talent, but the group’s momentum stalled shortly thereafter. From 2012 to 2013, the struggling singer-songwriter combatted homelessness, crashing on couches and stealing food to survive.

But one upload changed the trajectory of Kehlani’s career. In 2013, the singer joined SoundCloud and released her first solo track, “ANTISUMMERLUV.” The song immediately made waves and found its way to former AGOT host Nick Cannon, who set Kehlani up with some studio time. Just a year later, Kehlani dropped Cloud 19, her debut and breakthrough mixtape. Cloud 19 gained millions of SoundCloud plays and attracted fervent critical acclaim, being hailed as one of Complex’s “50 Best Albums of 2014” and prompting Vice to name Kehlani an “R&B Artist on the Verge of Blowing Up.”

Kehlani now has a record deal with Atlantic, a successful full-length album (SweetSexySavage), an opening spot on Demi Lovato and DJ Khaled’s North American tour, and two Grammy nominations to her name. And she continues to slay on SoundCloud – just last month, Kehlani shared an intimate acoustic track called “Again” on her page, quickly amassing over 800,000 plays. Wherever Kehlani’s journey takes her, we’re proud of where it all started – right here, on SoundCloud.

Listen to the latest music from Kehlani on SoundCloud now.