The Weeknd

The Weeknd Unveils The ‘Dawn FM’ Tracklist In A New Teaser Video

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The Weeknd Dawn FM Trailer
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The Weeknd has so far spent this week incrementally sharing information about his upcoming album Dawn FM, which comes out on Friday. He officially announced the project on Monday, shared the album cover yesterday, and today, he unveiled the album’s tracklist in a new teaser video.

While the tracklist as revealed today doesn’t indicate which artists are featured on which songs, some of the titles are indicative of their collaborators: “A Tale By Quincy” and “Phantom Regret By Jim” appear to be collaborations with Quincy Jones and Jim Carrey, respectively. Also previously announced to be appearing on the album are Tyler The Creator, Lil Wayne, and Oneohtrix Point Never.

Speaking of Carrey, the new video unveils another voiceover from the actor, as he can be heard saying, “God knows life is chaos, but he made one thing true: You got to unwind your mind, train your soul to align, and dance until you find that divine boogaloo.”

Also worth noting as that since pre-order links for the album first went live yesterday, The Weeknd’s online store has been updated to include various physical editions of the album, including some with alternate art that has an aesthetic similar to that of recent Oneohtrix Point Never releases.

Watch the Dawn FM tracklist reveal clip above and find the full tracklist below.

1. “Dawn FM”
2. “Gasoline”
3. “How Do I Make You Love Me?”
4. “Take My Breath”
5. “Sacrifice”
6. “A Tale By Quincy”
7. “Out Of Time”
8. “Here We Go… Again”
9. “Best Friends”
10. “Is There Someone Else?”
11. “Starry Eyes”
12. “Every Angel Is Terrifying”
13. “Don’t Break My Heart”
14. “I Heard You’re Married”
15. “Less Than Zero”
16. “Phantom Regret By Jim”

Dawn FM is out 1/7 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

The Weeknd Announces The ‘103.5 Dawn FM’ Livestream Experience With Amazon Music

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After months of teasing his upcoming sixth album, The Weeknd finally revealed its title and release date earlier this week. It’s called Dawn FM and it’s set to arrive this Friday, January 7, less than two years after his 2020’s After Hours. He also revealed that Jim Carrey, Quincy Jones, Tyler The Creator, Lil Wayne, and Oneohtrix Point Never will all appear as guest acts. And he unveiled its cover art which portrays him as a grey-haired old man. With days until Dawn FM arrives, The Weeknd returned with another announcement.

In partnership with Amazon Music, The Weeknd will hold a livestream experience called 103.5 Dawn FM in support of the new album. The show will air on the Amazon Music Channel on Twitch as well as on the Amazon Music App. A flyer for the livestream reveals that The Weeknd will head to “somewhere in Los Angeles” to hold the show. It begins on January 6 12am ET / 9pm ET, which is exactly when Dawn FM will drop.

In a press release about the event, The Weeknd said, “The power of the 103.5 Dawn FM experience is that maximum fulfillment comes when all who hear it are tuned in at the same time.”

Dawn FM is out 1/7 via Republic Records. Pre-save it here.

The Weeknd Is An Old Man In His Newly Unveiled ‘Dawn FM’ Album Cover

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The Weeknd Dawn FM Album Cover Crop
Republic

The Weeknd announced his upcoming album Dawn FM yesterday and shared a minute-long trailer for the project. In that trailer, we catch some glimpses of The Weeknd in aging prosthetics, making him look like an old man. It turns out that look is key to the identity of the album, as that look is what The Weeknd sports of the album’s cover art, which he shared today. The simple cover is a photo of old man Weekend, staring at the camera with his gray hair and weathered skin.

The trailer noted the project features Quincy Jones, Tyler The Creator, Lil Wayne, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Jim Carrey, whose voice can be heard in the trailer. After the album was announced, Carrey tweeted, “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].”

Check out the album art above and if you missed the album trailer, watch that below.

Dawn FM is out 1/7 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

Jim Carrey Heard The Weeknd’s Upcoming Album ‘Dawn FM’ And He Adores It

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Jim Carrey 2020
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This morning, The Weeknd announced that his new album is called Dawn FM and that it’s coming out this week, on January 7. Aside from the impending new music itself, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the news is the fact that Jim Carrey — who, like The Weeknd, is one of the biggest icons in Canadian entertainment history — features on the project. Now it appears the two listened to the upcoming album together yesterday and Carrey is a big fan of the project.

Carrey tweeted today, “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].”

Carrey has had the occasional brush with the music industry over the course of his career. He has a couple of singles on Spotify: 2014’s “Pecan Pie,” which originated from a 2003 Michel Gondry short film of the same name (the song was released as a single after Carrey performed it on Saturday Night Live). There’s also 2013’s “Cold Dead Hand,” which he recorded with Eels as part of a Funny Or Die sketch in which Carrey portrays Charlton Heston.

He also had some international success with a couple of songs from his movies: 1995’s “Cuban Pete” from The Mask charted in Australia and the UK, while 1996’s “Somebody To Love” (a Jefferson Airplane cover from The Cable Guy) charted in Australia.

The Weeknd’s New Album, ‘Dawn FM,’ Is Coming Out This Week And Jim Carrey Is Involved

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The Weeknd has announced that his new album, Dawn FM, is set for release this week, on Friday, January 7.

The trailer describes the project as “a new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd.” The trailer also includes a list of what seems to be collaborators on the project, and it features Jim Carrey (yes, that Jim Carrey), Quincy Jones, Tyler The Creator, Lil Wayne, and Oneohtrix Point Never. The clip, which features footage of The Weeknd in aging prosthetic makeup, ends with a voiceover (which sounds like it’s recited by Carrey) that says, “You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM. You’ve been in the dark for way too long. It’s time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms.”

While the Carrey collaboration may be unexpected, it’s not entirely unprecedented: The Canadian entertainment icons were introduced at a party and spent The Weeknd’s 30th birthday together. The Weeknd previously explained, “On my [30th] birthday, he called and told me to look out my window, and on his balcony he had these giant red balloons, and he picked me up and we went to breakfast. It was surreal. Jim Carrey was my first inspiration to be any kind of performer, and I went to breakfast with him on my first day of being 30.”

Watch the trailer above.

Dawn FM is out 1/7 via Republic.

The Weeknd Seems More Than Ready To Release His Next Album: ‘Let’s Just Drop The Whole Thing’

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The Weeknd will almost certainly release his sixth album at some point this year, but its arrival could come sooner than later. The singer first announced the album at last year’s Billboard Music Awards, and since then he’s been teasing it through interviews, tweets, Instagram posts, and more. His last update came back in October, when he said it was “complete.” He added that the only thing that’s missing is “a couple characters that are key to the narrative.” He kicked off 2022 with another update on the project.

On New Year’s Day, The Weeknd shared an Instagram post showing a text message conversation between him and La Mar Taylor, the co-founder of XO Records as well as the singer’s creative director. “Happy New Year brother! What we thinking ??” Taylor asks. In response, The Weeknd says, “Happy new year! Everything feels chaotic again. Music can heal and that feels more important than another album rollout.” He added, “Let’s just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people… XO.”

The news comes after The Weeknd delivered a pair of guest features to end 2021. The first was “Tears In The Club” with FKA Twigs, from her upcoming third project, and the second was “Poison” with the late Aaliyah, which will appear on the singer’s posthumous album Unstoppable.

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The best 25 tapes from 2011 created by Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd, Meek Mill and more. Continue reading…

The Weeknd’s ‘Echoes Of Silence’ Video Is A ‘Wall-E’ Meets ‘I, Robot’ Love Story

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Talk about pushing the creative envelope. The Weeknd continues to expand the limits of possibility with his many endeavors. While he says his next album is essentially “complete,” there’s been a ton of other unpredictable marquee projects that he’s been putting out in the meantime. It starts with collaborations with Swedish House Mafia, Rosalía, and FKA Twigs, but goes on to feature a series of NFT collectibles on Tom Brady’s platform, and shifting his next tour from arenas to stadiums. Heck, he’s even become The United Nations’ World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador and claimed the “No. 1 song of all time.”

So what’s left? Plenty. Keeping in line with the 10th anniversary re-release of the 2011 Trilogy mixtape series (House Of Balloons, Echoes Of Silence, and Thursday) that dropped earlier this year, a video for the title track to Echoes Of Silence has just been released. It feels like a post-apocalyptic Romeo and Juliet story featuring robots yearning to connect in a world that’s crumbling around them, with a visual aesthetic that’s like I, Robot in the world of Wall-E. It’s directed by Kurando Furuya, with creative direction from noted “superrealist” Hajime Sorayama, who has worked with everyone from George Lucas to Tyga, and also collaborated with The Weeknd on the Echoes Of Silence merch line.

Watch the video of “Echoes of Silence” above.

The Weeknd Is Releasing A Series Of NFT Collectibles On Tom Brady’s Autograph Platform

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This past October, The Weeknd said on his Apple Music show Memento Mori that his next album is “complete,” but that some additions needed to be made before release. “Some exciting features coming out in the fall before the album drops,” he said. “We’ll slowly be unraveling that info in the next couple months.” Well, we just caught wind of an exciting feature, although it seems as though this is more closely related to the recent diamond certification of “Blinding Lights” than the next album.

In a newly-announced NFT collectibles series, The Weeknd and Billboard are releasing a 7-piece animated series that celebrates the song’s designation as “The No. 1 song of all time.” At 90 weeks, the song became the longest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 and the news was announced on the cover of Billboard magazine. The cover is one of the seven collectibles, which is available to view on the NFT platform, Autograph, which was co-founded by Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It’s being auctioned off on OpenSea, which dubs itself “the world’s largest NFT marketplace.” A statement on the collection elaborated on each piece in the collection:

“The 7-piece, animated collection is composed of four designs, including a single NFT featuring The Weeknd’s recent cover on Billboard Magazine, which first announced the news of his record-breaking achievement, and three digital trading cards creatively inspired by the iconic “Blinding Lights” music video. The digital trading cards will be released in three tiers of rarity, and each of the collection’s unique, culturally-significant collectibles is individually signed to allow fans the opportunity to own a defining moment in music history as never before, from one of today’s most influential artists.”

For what it’s worth, The Weeknd is now a part of the Board of Directors at Autograph. The auction began on December 20 and continues until December 23 at 1 PM EST. All of the bidding is done via the ETH cryptocurrency. Take a look at the magazine cover NFT below and view the whole collection here.

The Weeknd NFT
The Weeknd

Aaliyah’s Latest Posthumous Record Pairs Her With The Weeknd For ‘Poison’

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This year has brought plenty of good and controversial news surrounding Aaliyah. It began with promises that the late singer’s music would be added to streaming services after decades of fighting for it. At long last, her second and third albums, One In A Million and Aaliyah, were uploaded to DSPs after Blackground Records, the label the projects were released on, signed a distribution deal with EMPIRE. That move proved to be controversial as it was soon revealed that Aaliyah’s estate would not benefit from the move. Now, months later Blackground has officially announced a new posthumous Aaliyah album is on the way, and today, they’ve released the lead single from it.

Blackground shares “Poison” with The Weeknd, a cross-generational collaboration between the R&B stars of yesterday and today. It features songwriting from the late Static Major and The Weeknd himself as well as production from DannyBoyStyles and Nick Lamb. “Poison” marks the first original release from Aaliyah in well over a decade, and there’s more on the way. The track is the first single from Aaliyah’s upcoming album Unstoppable, and in a press release, Blackground’s founder Barry Hankerson spoke about the new song and the upcoming project.

“I’m so excited to share this new song by Aaliyah and the very talented The Weeknd,” he said about the new single. “I wanted her adoring fans to get a special gift before the holidays and felt it was the perfect time to release a never-before-heard offering.”

You can press play on the new track in the video above.