Fresh off announcing a US stadium tour with Doja Cat for his last two albums, After Hours and Dawn FM, The Weeknd and frequent collaborator Swedish House Mafia are now set to replace Kanye West’s controversial dropout from the Coachella Festival, which starts next week. The first 4 months of 2022 have been an absolute […]
The post The Weeknd Will Replace Kanye at Coachella. Here Are 3 Reasons Why Kanye Might’ve Dropped Out appeared first on SOHH.com.
Well, that was quick. Just days after Kanye West pulled out of headlining Coachella — allegedly to get his head on straight after months of juvenile social media antics — the festival has announced his replacement: A double act consisting of EDM supergroup Swedish House Mafia and ’80s pop revivalist The Weeknd.
Funnily enough, The Weeknd actually beat the actual festival in posting the new lineup on Twitter by about five minutes. That said, the fest’s official account quickly corroborated the new information by posting the flyer shortly after.
The Party & The After Party pic.twitter.com/8gT2bF3x5j
— Coachella (@coachella) April 6, 2022
In the wake of Kanye’s withdrawal from the festival, there was plenty of speculation about who could take his place, with some sources positing everyone from Doja Cat to Justin Bieber. With Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd, Coachella has found a pair of artists who collectively have the clout to fill the void left by West’s departure.
The Weeknd — who recently became the artist with the second-most diamond certifications in history — may use the headlining set as a dry run for his upcoming After Hours Til Dawn Tour with Doja Cat. The Canadian singer had pushed back the tour after finding that arenas were too constraining to do everything he wanted to do with the show, which will now take over stadiums in 18 cities, including his native Toronto.
The Weeknd is one of the most decorated artists both in recent years and over the course of the modern music industry more broadly. That’s true pretty much regardless of whatever measure you use, but right now, let’s look at certifications from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America). There’s actually some news on that front today, as two The Weeknd songs — “Blinding Lights” and “Starboy” — have now achieved Diamond certification, indicating sales of at least 10 million units in the US.
That in itself is a big deal, but what’s even more noteworthy is what this does for The Weeknd’s placement on the all-time ranks: According to the RIAA website, today’s certifications put The Weeknd at three total Diamond singles, which is the second-most ever. (His other Diamond single, by the way, is “The Hills.”)
He’s now behind only Bruno Mars, who has four Diamond singles. The Weeknd is currently tied with Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Imagine Dragons, Katy Perry, and Maroon 5, at three. All those artists are among the few who have multiple Diamond singles: Those with two Diamond singles are Cardi B, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Post Malone, and that’s it.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd got some other RIAA certifications today, too: “I Feel It Coming” is now 6-times Platinum, “Die For You” is 4-times Platinum, “Heartless,” “Party Monster,” and “Reminder” are 3-times Platinum, and as far as albums, Starboy is 4-times Platinum. Overall, The Weeknd now has 30 Gold singles, 30 Platinum singles, and 16 multi-Platinum singles.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Today, The Weekend released the music video for “Out Of Time”, the latest single from his critically acclaimed album DAWN FM. The video was directed by Cliqua and features appearances from Jim Carrey, who is also on the song, as well as South Korean model and actress HoYeon Jung. The Weeknd also saw his previous singles “Blinding Lights” and “Starboy” became certified by the RIAA. With these certifications, The Weeknd becomes only the sixth solo artist to reach 3 diamond digital single awards.
Additionally, the recently announced After Hours Til Dawn Stadium Tour will feature special guest Doja Cat and kick off up north in The Weeknd’s hometown of Toronto on Friday, July 8th at the Rogers Centre with other stops at iconic U.S. stadiums including Metlife in New York City, Soldier Field in Chicago, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and more, before wrapping Friday, September 2nd at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The tour is produced by Live Nation. This is the first leg of The Weeknd’s massive world tour, with additional dates in Mexico, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa & Middle East to be announced soonS
The post The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” And “Starboy” Certified Diamond By RIAA appeared first on The Source.
In recent days, The Weeknd has been teasing that his new video for “Out Of Time” would be dropping soon, and it turns out “soon” is today, as the clip premiered this morning.
In it, he stars alongside Jung Ho-yeon, who is best known for her recent role as Kang Sae-byeok in Squid Game. In the clip, the pair enjoy some time together by singing “Out Of Time” on karaoke and hanging out in a hotel. Thinks take an odd twist towards the end, though, and that’s when Jim Carrey, whose voice was already featured on the song, pops up.
Ahead of the release of Dawn FM, Carrey offered his thoughts on the album, tweeting, :I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony. ;^•.” The Weeknd shared the tweet and added, “Thank you for being a part of this. It’s kismet. Full circle [single tear emoji].”
Meanwhile, The Weeknd as we know him might be gone soon, in that he may be considering changing his name, as he tweeted, “I feel like i should change my stage name to ABEL at this point lol. Maybe pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL. no last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince.”
Watch the “Out Of Time” video above.
Canadian pop star The Weeknd has probably heard every iteration of every possible joke about his stage name by this point. After all, when you name yourself something as common as a pair of days on a calendar, there’s bound to be a little confusion if the context isn’t set up just so. I mean, word processors were red-lining his name for something like a year after he initially debuted. So it makes sense that he’d want to change it up after a little over a decade, as he hinted recently on Twitter.
It seems he was at least partially prompted by his fans on Twitter, who have taken to addressing him by his first name, Abel. And while his government name, Abel Tesfaye, would be more than serviceable in the search engine optimization department, he joked that he wanted to take it even further, removing his last name entirely. “You guys are hilarious,” he wrote. ” I feel like i should change my stage name to ABEL at this point lol. Maybe pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL. no last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince.”
you guys are hilarious. i feel like i should change my stage name to ABEL at this point lol.
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) April 3, 2022
maybe pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL. no last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince. I don’t know it seems like a lot.
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) April 3, 2022
However, he didn’t seem completely sold on the idea, either. “I don’t know it seems like a lot,” he noted. He did get a vote of confidence from noted fantastic stage name bearer John Legend, though. “ABEL is dope,” said the crooner, prompting The Weeknd to reply, “I’m tempted…”
i’m tempted … https://t.co/1aKSsA6Tud
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) April 3, 2022
Let’s face it, though: If he does change his name to just Abel, it’ll almost certainly take a while to get the masses to connect the old identity with the new one. Even Prince had trouble getting people to accept “The Artist” during his rights war with Warner Bros. Records in the ’90s. On the other hand, Mr. Tesfaye has blossomed into a big enough star that he’s one of the few folks who might be able to get away with it. After all, he’s appeared in animation multiple times, most recently on The Simpsons, and his After Hours Tour with Doja Cat will play stadiums instead of arenas. He’s about as big as a star can get — maybe even mononymously so.
ABEL formally known as The Weeknd ?
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) April 3, 2022
formerly ***** see this is what i’m talking about @Twitter
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) April 3, 2022
