Just one month after the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Khalid and Shawn Mendes invited surviving members of the school choir onstage at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards for a moving tribute.
Flanked by members of the Marjory Stoneham Douglas show choir, the rising stars performed a stirring rendition of their teen anthem "Youth" to a crowd full of moist eyes.
"It was powerful and it was overwhelming," Khalid told JAM'N 945 about the performance. "I loved it."
Despite a unifying message of adolescent freedom, "Youth," the third single off Mendes' self-titled LP, failed to crack the coveted Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. But that didn't stop BBMA show-runners from selecting the stirring track for the timely, political, performance.
"The fact that we all came together for betterness, to speak about something that's not being [spoken] about as much as it should be, was awesome," the 20-year-old singer said. "That's a performance that I'll never be able to forget. Ever."