Whether you first encountered Kehlani through her era-defining Cloud 19 mixtape or her 2025 career-crowning smash hit “Folded” — which earned her two Grammys (her first after five previous nods) and became her highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 hit (No. 6) — the Oakland-bred R&B powerhouse was glad that you bought a ticket to her ongoing, 44-date world tour.
Mounted in support of her eponymous fifth studio album — which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums — the Kehlani World Tour will visit arenas and amphitheaters in major cities across North America, Europe and Australia through the end of the year.
But at Friday night’s (Aug. 21) sold-out Barclays Center show in Brooklyn, New York, the cover star of Billboard‘s 2026 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue narrowed the scope of her storytelling to the emotional ebb and flow of a night out and the morning after, still finding space to honor the current wave of momentum mainstream R&B is enjoying and bridge that power with the iconography of eras past.
Before she entered the stage like a ’00s R&B fantasy to the tune of “Anotha Luva,” Kehlani ceded the stage to her dazzling support acts: Grammy winner Durand Bernarr, DJ Waseel, ascendant R&B singer-songwriter TheARTI$T and Oscar-nominated songwriter DIXSON. Waseel served as master of ceremonies for the entire night, soundtracking interludes with Kehlani deep cuts like “You Know Wassup,” feeding the day-one fans and keeping the energy high. TheARTI$T brought her signature ethereal sound to Barclays Center, playing cuts like “Sober” and “Love Is” and maintaining the thread of queer R&B that ran through the show. DIXSON played a few of his own cuts (“Cherry Sorbet”), as well as mashups of songs he helped write (like Beyoncé’s “Morning Dew”), before reappearing later in the show to assist on background vocals during Kehlani’s showstopping rendition of “Still.”
Bernarr, who played cuts from last year’s BLOOM (“Generous”) and this year’s BERNARR. (“Am I Okay?”), fully leaned into his rockstar proclivities, packing in gravity-defying riffs, an intensely physical stage presence (he was literally busting out kip-ups) and rollicking musical arrangements. The Cleveland vocalist was the final support act to hit the stage before Kehlani kicked off her nearly two-hour set — and he certainly knew a thing or two about properly preparing the space.
In her tracing of the pre-game, the night out, the comedown during the walk home, and the at-times questionable decisions that come in the wee hours of the morning, Kehlani performed nearly every track from her new LP, making sure to incorporate older catalog cuts. From 2017’s SweetSexySavage (“Piece of Mind”) and 2019’s While We Wait (“Footsteps”) to 2022’s Blue Water Road (“Everything”), nearly every era of Kehlani’s discography got some shine.
Not only did the setlist smartly weave the quasi-concept album feel of Kehlani with the narrative threads of her larger catalog, but it also allowed the htimaker and her music director to incorporate nods to ’00s R&B classics like Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat” and Ne-Yo’s “So Sick.” That commitment to grounding the success of “Folded,” its parent album and accompanying tour, to R&B’s rich history extended to the choreography, helmed in part by Dominique Battiste and Darius “Dario” Boatner, who packed in homages to both Michael and Janet Jackson. Oh, and a surprise Cardi B appearance was simply the cherry on top.
From heart-melting vocals to an indescribably warm presence, Kehlani gifted Brooklyn a night of soul, gratitude and, most importantly, safety. A decade-plus in the making, the Barclays Center stop of the Kehlani World Tour was the ultimate proof of concept for unabashedly queer, vocal-forward contemporary R&B headlining and selling out arenas.
Here are the five best moments from the Kehlani World Tour in Brooklyn.
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Mashups Drive Home R&B’s Legacy
With features like T-Pain, Brandy and Usher — not to mention the plethora of late ’90s and ’00s R&B stars who appear on her “Folded” remix pack — Kehlani’s latest musical era has been all about paying tribute to the eras of R&B that helped birth an artist like her. So, it’s no surprise that she took this latest tour as an opportunity to trace those musical throughlines in front of a live audience.
Her Masego-assisted “Hate the Club” got a breath of new life via Brandy’s “Full Moon”; “Footsteps” traded Musiq Soulchild for Omarion and “Ice Box,” and “Serial Lover” got a kick of tempo by way of Ne-Yo’s eternal “So Sick.” If it wasn’t already clear, the Kehlani World Tour is truly for the R&B lovers.
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Kehlani Keeps Dance at the Forefront
While sharp, erratic, dance-to-the-lyrics-and-not-the-beat choreography has come to dominate the intersection between pop music and dance, Kehlani spent her world tour honoring a few older styles that today’s stars could do well to look to. Dance has long been paramount to her brand and stage show, but on this latest tour, Kehlani’s homages felt especially grounded.
She mixed her own “Back and Forth” with the fluidity of Fatima Robinson’s “Rock the Boat” moves, bridged decades of dancefloor euphoria between “After Hours” and Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” and highlighted the tasteful allure of more sensual movement by blending “Distraction” with Janet Jackson’s classic “I Get Lonely.” And that’s not to mention the majorette tribute that led into “Pocket!”
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“Unlearn” Praise & Worship Session
Gospel will always be a key component of R&B’s DNA — and Kehlani taking the time to openly praise God and give thanks for her decade-plus of success proved as much. Before she closed the show and sent the 13,000-strong crowd into the night with “Folded,” Kehlani delivered arguably her best vocal performance of the night with “Unlearn,” which Billboard named the best song on Kehlani upon the album’s full release.
For Friday night’s show — and apparently, every night’s show — Kehlani invited Bernarr, DIXSON and TheARTI$T onstage to join her in a moment of gratitude and praise and worship as they traded riffs and runs across “Unlearn.” It’s not often that the main act brings their openers out and champions them (“Please hashtag and @ them and buy their music, y’all,” she gushed), but Kehlani was adamant that her rising tide lifts all the boats that float in her waters.
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Cardi B Pops Out for “Ring” and “AH HA”
Over the past few years, Kehlani and Cardi B have proven themselves to be a dynamic duo — but they didn’t perform their new collaboration, “Pocket,” Fridat night. Instead, Bardi and Lani chose to throw it all the way back to 2018 for “Ring,” their fan-favorite duet from the Bronx rapper’s Invasion of Privacy debut album. The minute Cardi strutted out in her slick bun and yellow-printed pencil skirt suit set, the crowd got so loud you could barely hear her spit out her first few bars. As if that surprise wasn’t special enough, Cardi also treated the crowd to an abridged rendition of her new “AH HA” single, which recently became her 30th career top 10 hit on Hot Rap Songs (No. 3).
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Setlist
- “Anotha Luva”
- “Shoulda Never”
- “No Such Thing”
- “You Got It”
- “Back and Forth”
- “Lights On”
- “Serial Lover”
- “Sweet Nuthins”
- “Piece of Mind”
- “Open (Passionate)”
- “Call Me Back”
- “Pocket”
- “Hate the Club”
- “After Hours”
- “Oooh”
- “Toxic”
- “Can You Blame Me”
- “Still”
- “I Need You”
- “Footsteps”
- “Out the Window”
- “Ring” (with Cardi B)
- “AH HA” (with Cardi B)
- “Nights Like This”
- “Distraction”
- “Everything”
- “Cruise Control”
- “Unlearn”
- “Folded”
