Brazilian fans of The Weeknd were treated to some previews of his upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow. During the performance, Playboi Cartijoined him onstage to give the rambunctious crowd a taste of what we now know to be “Timeless”. The superstars have been developing their relationship for the last year or so since the release of “Popular” last summer. So, it’s nice to see that Abel felt it was necessary to include him on his supposed final Weeknd album. So far, it seems that the Canadian multi-hyphenate is looking to give us an amalgamation of the sounds we have gotten on his last two projects with some callbacks to his earlier work too.
On “Timeless”, The Weeknd and his stacked team of producers blended some incredible shots of synths and contemporary trap production. It allowed Abel to effortlessly switch between his rapping and his delicate singing. Additionally, Carti drops the controversial deep voice for his OG high pitch delivery, making the track that much better. It seems that fans are in agreement with us on it too because the streaming numbers have been off the charts. In just the first 24 hours on Spotify, it racked up over 10 million plays. Currently, it’s over 24 million. These two new they had a hit, so it’s no surprise we have visuals for “Timeless” as of today. In comparison to the video for “Dancing In The Flames”, this one is not nearly as dramatic. It’s darker and grimier, with The Weeknd and Playboi rocking dark attire to match the cavernous vibe. It’s fairly minimalistic, as the locations rarely change from the plain black backdrop. Check out the music video below with the attached embed.
The Weeknd first revealed the cover art for Hurry Up Tomorrow on September 7 after teasing the new album for months before. In July, he posted a video to social media that declared “there are three chapters to this tale,” leading to speculation that his then-rumored album would constitute the capstone to a trilogy made up of his last two releases, After Hours and Dawn FM. Then, he shared a second screenshot from another eerie video, furthering the mystery and the anticipation for the announcement. Finally, he dropped the video for the lead single, “Dancing In The Flames,” seemingly building on the overarching narrative from the past four years. We’re looking forward to seeing what it all means when Hurry Up Tomorrow is finally out.
You can watch the video for The Weeknd’s “Timeless” featuring Playboi Carti above.
Spooky season is right around the corner, and it looks like Abel Tesfaye is getting in the mood early. At least, that’s how it appears in the teaser The Weeknd shared from his upcoming Hurry Up, Tomorrow single, “Timeless.” In a tweet, he shared an ominous-looking screenshot from the music video featuring the highly demanded guest star Playboi Carti with both artists draped in their signature black-on-black aesthetics. Carti appears to be wearing a samurai helmet, while Abel himself sticks with his now-familiar shades.
The two artists previously collaborated on the soundtrack from The Weeknd’s much-maligned HBO series, The Idol, teaming up with Madonna on “Popular.” That song, intriguingly enough, also appeared in Fortnite during the game’s Fortnite Festival performance. At the time, Tesfaye said of the collaboration: “I’m proud of it. I’m definitely proud of it. Me and Carti had this… I mean, we’ve jammed out before. We’ve had a different version of this song prior. So I’ve had these vocals for a while, and I’ve kind of just worked around it, and then kind of kept it in the tuck. But now it felt like it was time.”
Whether the vocals for “Timeless” also derived from this jam session is unknown, but they’ve displayed compelling chemistry before, so to see this record also succeed in that respect wouldn’t be a surprise. “Timeless” will be the second single from Hurry Up, Tomorrow after “Dancing In The Flames.”
The Weeknd responded to Nicki Minaj’s recent praise on X (formerly Twitter), earlier this week, after the rapper posted about his “sweet” falsetto. “How does The Weeknd still have that sweet young sounding falsetto?” Nicki wrote in one post. He replied with a number of heart emojis.
Nicki’s praise comes after The Weeknd dropped his latest single, “Dancing in the Flames,” earlier this month. He had performed the track during a massive concert in São Paulo at the beginning of the month, along with several other new songs. He also welcomed Playboi Carti and Anitta to the stage.
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL – SEPTEMBER 7: Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye performs on stage during the ‘After Hours Til Dawn Tour’ at MorumBIS on September 7, 2024 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Wagner Meier/Getty Images for Live Nation)
Despite her praise of The Weeknd, Nicki hasn’t been entirely positive on social media as of late. She’s called out JAY-Z on several occasions after the legendary rapper chose Kendrick Lamar to perform at the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show in New Orleans. She thought the move was disrespectful to her longtime collaborator, Lil Wayne, who is from Louisiana. “Denying a young black man what he rightfully put into this game for no other reason but your ego,” Minaj wrote on X, earlier this month. “Your hatred for BIRDMAN, Drake & Nicki got you punishing Lil Wayne?!?!!! LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!!! THE GOAT?!!!!!!!!!!! Nola what’s good?!!!!!! Eminem stood firm on having 50Cent come out. A white man. S*** sad. House N***** TINGZ. but it’s GOOD FI DEM!!!!!!! No loyalty? Welp. then n***** will keep son’ing you!!!!!”
Nicki Minaj Praises The Weeknd
Check out Nicki’s post for The Weeknd below. It comes as he continues preparing for the release of his upcoming album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. It will be his final release for an album trilogy that began with After Hours in 2020 and continued with Dawn FM in 2022. Be on the lookout for further updates on The Weeknd and Nicki Minaj on HotHewHipHop.
With the release of his upcoming album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, The Weeknd looks to complete a trilogy of projects begun by his 2020 album, After Hours, and continued by its 20022 followup, Dawn FM. Trilogies are something of a recurring theme for the Canadian superstar, as it was his trio of haunting mixtapes (2011’s House Of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence) that first put him on the map as a moody, mysterious musician with a multilayered approach to songwriting. He’s expanded on that reputation ever since, transforming so completely for each new release, that he’s become music’s biggest concept artist.
In starting his current, ongoing trilogy, The Weeknd not only took a big musical swing in a new sonic direction, but he also crafted a bizarre character to suit the glittering, synth-heavy sounds. While he kicked off the rollout for After Hours by introducing his red-and-black suit and retro stunna shades in the video for “Heartless,” it was the follow-up video for “Blinding Lights” that truly set the tone for the After Hours era; the bloodied protagonist, wandering the Las Vegas strip to the pulse-pounding sounds of synthwave created the unsettling contrast that would define that album’s messaging.
With each new visual from the album, that unsettling vibe got more and more horrific. The After Hours short film found Red being compelled by unseen forces, while the gory “In Your Eyes” video subverted its own horror-thriller tropes, ending with Red decapitated by the woman he appeared to be stalking throughout the clip. By the time of the “Too Late” video, Red’s head had been transplanted onto a new body by plastic surgery addicts in Beverly Hills, setting up the eye-popping, puffy-faced version from the “Save Your Tears” video, which ended on yet another ambivalent note, with Red finally getting something akin to closure.
Like the preceding era, the change over to Dawn FM happened gradually. The “Take My Breath” video carried over some of its predecessor’s attributes, but now, Abel’s suit was black-on-black, the violence was toned down and more psychosexual. If the After Hours visuals were concerned with the violence inherent in the pursuit of the hedonistic lifestyle enjoyed by Red, then Dawn FM‘s visuals looked at the sexual and social repercussions thereof. Black finds himself trapped in a soul-stealing ritual in the video for “Sacrifice,” ending the video with his youth stripped away.
In “Gasoline,” he’s haunted by ghoulish specters and a youthful doppelgänger that taunt him at what appears to be a crowded nightclub. The elder Black returns to get revenge on his double in “Out Of Time,” only to find himself losing his identity even further in the voyeuristic video for “Is There Someone Else?” Musically, Dawn FM slides all over the dial, from easy listening to pulsating EDM. In describing the album’s themes, he likened it to “being stuck in traffic waiting to reach the light at the end of the tunnel” in a state of purgatory after death.
If anything, “Dancing In The Flames,” the first video from Hurry Up Tomorrow reinforces and doubles down on that idea, featuring yet another Weeknd character getting into a violent encounter, this time, ending up on the wrong side of a face-off with a semi truck. His latest character ends up wandering a ghostly wasteland and seeing a light that could represent the afterlife. Fans have speculated that if Dawn FM was about Purgatory and that made After Hours about Hell, then perhaps Hurry Up Tomorrow will find Abel entering the Pearly Gates.
Or not. If anything, the Toronto native is famous for his swerves, for offering up the unexpected, and for crafting projects that defy expectations. While it could be argued that he might be getting overly reliant on these convoluted narratives to tell his stories — even on stage, he’s been known to incorporate characters, like his The Idol antihero Tedros, or whatever the knockoff MF DOOM thing he did in Spain was supposed to be — the truth is, this constant reinvention has been a huge part of building his popularity to what it is today. By letting his imagination run wild, he keeps finding fertile new veins of creativity that keep him at the top of his craft.
The Weeknd is generally known for embracing dark subject matter with matching aesthetics, and the first single from his new album is very much in that tradition, despite its uplifting production
“Dancing In The Flames” is an uptempo dance-pop ballad of the sort we often get from Abel Tesfaye. With lyrics encouraging a lover to “just have faith,” it seems at first listen to be a more hopeful song — but like, many of his tracks, the glittering beat hides some harrowing content. Fortunately, the video is suitably horrifying; Abel gets into a head-on collision with a semi truck, resulting in what very much looks to be a trip to the afterlife.
As a glimpse of his upcoming sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, it suggests that the nightmarish posture of its immediate predecessors, After Hours and Dawn FM, might be in the past — which is fitting, since Hurry Up Tomorrow is being presented as the conclusion of a trilogy.
The album’s cover, which he shared earlier this week, also seems to bear out this theory, as the photo presents a bare-faced Tesfaye with tears in his eyes, a stark contrast to the old man makeup from Dawn FM and the bloodied hedonist of After Hours. In a message teasing the new album, he reinforced the optimistic speculation about the album, writing, “A new path awaits. When today ends, I’ll discover who I am.”
While he has yet to reveal the release date for Hurry Up Tomorrow, the release of “Dancing In The Flames” will surely raise the anticipation for the upcoming album.
To celebrate his special one-night-only concert in São Paulo, Brazil, The Weeknd has also launched a limited-edition XO merch collection, with 10% of net proceeds from all sales being donated to the BrazilFoundation’s Brazilian Soul Fund. These funds will support communities in Brazil affected by natural disasters and economic hardships, focusing on helping vulnerable families in southern Brazil rebuild after recent devastating floods.
The new XO São Paulo merch collection was teased earlier this week on XO’s Instagram, featuring previews from XO Records signee Chxrry22 and Brazilian model Nalu. The 17-piece collection was shot across São Paulo and features a range of XO-focused pieces that pay homage to the Brazilian flag, including ringer tees, women’s rally shorts, baby tees, traditional tees, cut-off tees, trucker hats, snapbacks, and a hoodie.
Available for a limited time, items from the exclusive drop can be purchased only at the São Paulo concert and online at YouTube + xo.store.. This unique collection celebrates The Weeknd’s memorable performance in São Paulo while contributing to a meaningful cause.
Last week, he released the forthcoming body of work’s title, Hurry Tomorrow. Today (September 7), The Weeknd unveiled Hurry Tomorrow‘s official album cover.
Hurry Tomorrow follows in line with The Weeknd’s past portrait style cover art (2015’s Beauty Behind The Madness, 2016’s Starboy, 2020’s After Hours, and 2022’s Dawn FM). The hauntingly vulnerable graphic features The Weeknd makes piercing eye contact with the lens. Without the designer buds or special effects makeup, viewers are drawn into The Weeknd’s emotional facial expression and glossed over eyes.
“Exciting times ahead! The Weeknd’s album cover always sets the tone for the music. Can’t wait to see what “Hurry Up Tomorrow” brings,” chimed one user.
We are almost at the finish line, and as bittersweet as it is, it looks like The Weeknd will close out his trilogy – and moniker – with a bang. Moreover, he just unveiled the official album cover art for his new upcoming LP, Hurry Up Tomorrow. Much like its predecessors, After Hours and Dawn FM, it’s an image of the Canadian superstar’s face, but this one is much more “normal” and rudimentary compared to the blood-soaked and aged portraits of the aforementioned projects, respectively. As such, fans couldn’t be more excited to hear how these themes will wrap up with this third and final piece of the puzzle.
Furthermore, this adds to other Hurry Up Tomorrow details that The Weeknd shared with Billboard Brazil in their interview before his shows in the country this weekend. One of them is that he actually composed the “central song” of this new record in São Paulo. Abel Tesfaye also called something “Frankenstein,” and it’s a bit unclear if this is a nickname for the album as a whole or for this “central song” that the article mentions. Either way, this nickname indicates a fusion of a lot of different genres and sonic styles that still maintains a core and unmistakeable identity at its root.
In addition, even though The Weeknd’s website doesn’t indicate a release date for this new album, we do have some hints as to when Hurry Up Tomorrow will come out. Well, we have one hint, to be honest. This is because of the physical pre-orders that he put up for this new LP, in addition to a pre-save option for digital streaming platforms. In the pre-order item description, it doesn’t indicate any release date. However, it does say that the physical copies will ship near the release date, which will apparently be no later than six months from today (Saturday, September 7). Hopefully he doesn’t take cues from his potential future collaboratorPlayboi Carti and actually drops the album.
Jokes aside, this rollout and piece-by-piece hype construction is very different to the Atlanta MC’s situation. Either way, we can’t wait to see what The Weeknd brings us next, especially with this artwork in mind. Will we get a more raw, simple, vulnerable, and definitive album building off of his mysterious, emotional, and trippy journey so far? Or can we not even fathom what’s in store right now? We can’t even tell which is the more exciting option.
A new interview with BillboardBrazil has shed light on The Weeknd’s upcoming show in São Paulo, his love of his Brazilian fanbase, mental health, and much more. But one of the most exciting parts of the conversation was the details that he spread around the piece about his next album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. This will not only close out Abel’s 2020s trilogy as the follow-up to After Hours and Dawn FM, but it will also apparently retire The Weeknd moniker as a creative project with one last hurrah. With all this excitement around this next full-length in mind, it’s no wonder that every little breadcrumb is leaving fans starving for more.
Furthermore, the first big detail to note is that The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow has a “central song,” according to Billboard. He apparently nicknamed it “Frankenstein” for how its sonic fusions didn’t take away from the essence of the record (although that might refer to HUT as a whole). The Canadian superstar reportedly composed it during his last São Paulo concert visit last October. Since then, he’s not only dropped a few collaborations, but his teases towards another Playboi Carti link-up and more have really energized fans’ excitement.
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL – MARCH 26: The Weeknd performs at Lollapalooza Brazil day 2 at Autodromo de Interlagos on March 26, 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Raphael Dias/Getty Images)
However, the most important revelation about Hurry Up Tomorrow was about the mind-state that The Weeknd created it in. “There is always pressure to surpass my last project,” he expressed. “Growth is important. Sometimes it may not be what people want to hear from me at the moment, but, when the body of work is complete, I hope they can appreciate what I have been trying to achieve. I have been working on this discography for a long time. It was all planned.”
Meanwhile, The Weeknd also spoke on his remarks about facing “the abyss” shortly after announcing this year’s Brazil visit. “It can mean many things,” he shared. “For me, it is something very specific,” he says in the interview, in a mysterious mood. “I faced it long enough. Most of the time, I overcame it. But I work on it every day. I hope that [my music] helps others face and overcome the abyss, too.” From what this all indicates, Hurry Up Tomorrow will be a deeply cathartic, vividly creative, and bittersweet experience. We’ll take ten copies, please.
