Kehlani sold out Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday, Aug. 21, delivering a nearly two-hour, 29-song performance as part of her 44-date Kehlani World Tour, which runs through arenas and amphitheaters across North America, Europe and Australia through the end of the year. The Oakland-bred singer, currently the cover star of Billboard's 2026 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue, is touring behind her eponymous fifth studio album, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and hit No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Kehlani opened the night's headlining set with "Anotha Luva," following performances from support acts Durand Bernarr, DJ Waseel, TheARTI$T and DIXSON. Waseel served as the night's MC, spinning deep cuts like "You Know Wassup" between sets. TheARTI$T performed "Sober" and "Love Is," while Oscar-nominated songwriter DIXSON played his own "Cherry Sorbet" along with a mashup of Beyoncé's "Morning Dew," a song he helped write, before returning later to provide background vocals on Kehlani's rendition of "Still." Bernarr, drawing from last year's BLOOM ("Generous") and this year's BERNARR. ("Am I Okay?"), closed out the openers with a physically intense set that included kip-ups.
The main set traced a narrative arc from a pre-game to a night out to the morning after, pulling largely from the new album while weaving in older catalog tracks, including "Piece of Mind" from 2017's SweetSexySavage, "Footsteps" from 2019's While We Wait, and "Everything" from 2022's Blue Water Road. The show also paid tribute to R&B's past, incorporating elements of Aaliyah's "Rock the Boat" and Ne-Yo's "So Sick," with choreography by Dominique Battiste and Darius "Dario" Boatner referencing both Michael and Janet Jackson. "Hate the Club," a collaboration with Masego, was blended with Brandy's "Full Moon"; "Footsteps" swapped a Musiq Soulchild reference for Omarion's "Ice Box"; and "Serial Lover" picked up tempo cues from "So Sick." On the dance side, "Back and Forth" merged with Fatima Robinson's "Rock the Boat" choreography, "After Hours" bridged into Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," and "Distraction" blended with Janet Jackson's "I Get Lonely," alongside a majorette-inspired intro into "Pocket."
Cardi B made a surprise appearance for "Ring" and "AH HA." Later, Kehlani delivered "Unlearn" — which Billboard named the best song on Kehlani — inviting Bernarr, DIXSON and TheARTI$T back onstage for a shared moment of praise. "Please hashtag and @ them and buy their music, y'all," Kehlani told the crowd. The night, in front of a 13,000-strong audience, closed with "Folded," the 2025 single that earned Kehlani two Grammys and became her highest-charting Hot 100 hit at No. 6.
Photo: AlgernonLalinn, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
