He Promised he Would be Back! Khalid’s intimate performance at L’Olympia

L’Olympia was the place to be on Thursday, September 24th, for a blast from the past with a decade of chart hitting pop bangers as musician, Khalid, graced the city of Montreal for the first time in over 7 years. The artist had originally been scheduled to perform earlier this past May at Place Bell in Laval, which was later cancelled due to low ticket sales. However, he promised he would not forget about our beautiful city, so he made Montreal the first stop of the It’s Always Summer Somewhere World Tour.

The concert was opened by Magi Merlin, a Canadian artist from Saint-Lazare, a city just outside of Montreal. I must admit, I was not sure if her music was something that I would normally vibe with, however, by the end of her set, her unique ‘broken Rnb’ sound and dynamic energy not only hyped up the crowd, but had some of the audience searching for her on streaming platforms. Her crowd work and aura had everyone dancing to songs they did not even know, including crowd favourites “WHIP” and “pixxxie”.

I went into the concert with the expectation that Khalid’s setlist would be a variety of his music over the course of his career. From popular tracks he made before he went on a 5-year long hiatus from releasing full studio albums, to some of his many featured singles with other artists. I did assume that the focus would be on his two most recent projects, which reinforced by Setlist.fm when I looked into the programming of past shows over the course of his last few months of touring.  

As a result, I was incredibly surprised that only a handful of new tracks were played, including “Everything We See” from Sincere (2024) and “out of body,” “in plain sight,” and a couple of others from after the sun goes down (2025). The rest of the extensive set list were from his older, more popular and mainstream songs from American Teen (2017), which launched his career at 18 years old, and Free Spirit (2019).

He entered the stage at 9pm, singing “Better” and “8TEEN” to warm up the crowd for the emotional night that was to come. Tears were shed throughout the venue as Khalid stood on the spotlit stage, singing “Saved,” “Coaster,” and his parts of the single “lovely” that features Billie Eilish. Higher energy songs, such as “Another Sad Love Song,” “OTW,” and “Silence,” were accompanied by his backup dancers, elevating the energy of the venue. The camaraderie between the dancers and Khalid, who danced alongside him at times, contributed to the upbeat vibes that kept the audience -- myself included -- dancing. Even those on the balcony. At “Saturday Nights” some couples began slow dancing together, a song which had presumably also become “their song.”

Suddenly, the night closed with “Young Dumb & Broke.” I was not ready for the night to end as by the time the final song concluded, it was 10:07pm. With the exclusion of such a wide selection of Khalid’s newer songs, the show decreased from the typical hour and 45mins run time to just a little over an hour. With how his songs are mixed in the setlist, this left approximately 10 songs that I feel as though we missed out on. Some of my favourites “nah,” “medicine,” “Please Don’t Fall In Love With Me,” and many others from his recent albums were performed in all other stops of the North American leg of this tour, so why not Montreal? 

Maybe this was an intentional decision based on the local fans, and a previous lack of engagement with Khalid’s newer projects, or other extenuating circumstances I may be unaware of. I definitely would have loved to hear some of his newer work that resonates more with who he is today as an artist, so this was a big source of disappointment for me.

Regardless of all the changes made behind the scenes, from the setlist to the date and venue, the show was a hit! The only thing that mattered was the passion of fans who showed up with their hearts and souls poured into Khalid’s performance.