The Weeknd

The Weeknd Suffers Defeat To A Daring Damsel In The Video For ‘Take My Breath’

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The Weeknd has been hitting fans with a wave of hints towards new music for the past few months. The teases include a tweet he shared last spring where he wrote, “made so much magic in the small quarantined room.” In addition to that, during an award acceptance speech at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, the singer said, “The After Hours are done and the dawn is coming.” His messages remained vague to fans until he announced a new single earlier this week, thus launching a new era in his career.

Titled “Take My Breath,” the track is an electric and full-spirited release that sounds like a blend of The Weeknd’s Starboy and After Hours albums. The song also arrives with a video that sees the singer wandering through a dimly lit party. He soon lands upon a woman that draws him in and ends up being the person he spends the night with. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when she quite literally takes his breath away to end the visual.

The new song was announced in a two-minute trailer earlier this week. Shortly after he shared the video, an ad for the 2020 Olympics was released which featured a new, yet short portion of “Take My Breath.” The visual for The Weeknd’s latest release was initially slated to premiere prior to screenings of The Suicide Squad in IMAX theaters this week, but the visual was pulled after health concerns for epilepsy were raised as the video features scenes with intense strobe lighting.

You can watch a video for “Take My Breath” above.

The Weeknd’s Upcoming Video For ‘Take My Breath’ Was Pulled From IMAX Theaters Due To Epilepsy Concerns

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It’s been a year and a half since After Hours, The Weeknd’s last album, but there’s another en route. Last spring he started teasing his follow-up, writing on Twitter that he “made so much magic in the small quarantined room.” This past week, he announced that his new single, “Take My Breath,” would arrive on August 6. However, a planned preview of the track had to be scotched.

The video for the song was slated to premiere in IMAX theaters this week prior to screenings of The Suicide Squad. However, according to Variety and TMZ, it’s been pulled due to epilepsy concerns, as it features scenes with intense strobe lighting. Despite this, “Take My Breath” and its official video will still arrive as scheduled this Friday, August 6, albeit not on giant IMAX movie screens.

In a GQ profile that was released earlier this week, The Weeknd shared what listeners can expect on the new album. “The music hit the studio like a Mack truck,” he declared. “The new project is packed with party records. Like real-deal, illuminated-white-tiles-on-the-floor party records. Quincy Jones meets Giorgio Moroder meets the best-night-of-your-fucking-life party records. Not anachronistic disco stuff.” He added, “That sort of retro thing is having a moment right now in pop music, but these records are new.”

Kanye West Seems To Be Teasing Some Sort Of Reunion With The Weeknd

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Kanye West and The Weeknd have a history: West produced “Tell Your Friends” from The Weeknd’s 2005 album Beauty Behind The Madness, while The Weeknd sang on West’s The Life Of Pablo highlight “FML.” Now, it seems the two may have something else in the works.

Yesterday, West, who is in the process of finishing Donda, took to Instagram to share a phone screenshot of his recent calls. Most notably, among them were a handful of late-night calls to a contact labeled “ABEL WEEKEND,” which is almost certainly The Weeknd.

This comes shortly after The Weeknd said he’d be interested in reconnecting with West, saying, “I’d love to work with Kanye again. Especially on production.” He also shared admiration for Tyler The Creator, saying, “I got mad love for Tyler The Creator, and what he’s doing right now. Tyler is funny, man. I remember he came to one of my performances — I think it was like a festival performance. And he was very vocal about how ‘Starboy’ was his favorite song at the time. You can tell he’s waiting for the song. I could see him. As soon as the song happened, he’s like, ‘All right, cool. Thanks.’ And he just peaced out. It was pretty funny. But he’s somebody that I really admire, because he wears his feelings on his sleeve.”

The Weeknd Is Launching A New Era This Week With The Single ‘Take My Breath’

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After a bunch of not-so-subtle hints, it looks like The Weeknd is ready to kick off his post-After Hours era. He teased nearly two minutes of new music in a video yesterday, and now he’s unveiled even more of the song. Furthermore, he revealed that it’s called “Take My Breath” and that it’s set to drop this Friday, August 6.

The song scores a new ad for NBC’s coverage of the 2020 Olympics, specifically some track and field events. Although the ad reveals the name of the song, compared to the previous teaser, it’s a less substantial preview of the actual music, although it shows off what sounds like the hook, which the teaser did not.

In an interview from last September, The Weeknd indicated that the album he was working on at the time was cinematic in nature, saying, “I’m guilty of wanting to outdo my last album, but it’s never like, ‘I’ve got to do the same type of song.’ I’m so happy I’m not like that. My palette is so wide. […] I’m trying to find a perfect balance with the film and the music, and so far it’s going really well. I think I might have cracked the code.”

Check out the ad above.

The Weeknd’s New Era Of Music Starts… Now!

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Fans of Toronto rap crooner The Weeknd are getting amped. The music superstar went online to hint at a new era of music coming as soon as possible. The Weeknd’s New Era Of Music Starts Now Abel tweeted out last night that something has started. He hasn’t identified what exactly he was referring to, but […]

The Weeknd Wants To Make More Music With Kanye West

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The Weeknd brought a lot of collaborators on board for After Hours, like Oneohtrix Point Never, Lil Uzi Vert, and Ariana Grande. There are some other folks he’d like to team up with, though, including a previous collaborator.

In a new GQ profile, when asked about who he’d like to work with soon, he responded:

“I’d love to work with Arca. Arca’s great. I’d love to work with Kanye [West] again. Especially on production. I got mad love for Tyler The Creator, and what he’s doing right now. Tyler is funny, man. I remember he came to one of my performances — I think it was like a festival performance. And he was very vocal about how ‘Starboy’ was his favorite song at the time. You can tell he’s waiting for the song. I could see him. As soon as the song happened, he’s like, ‘All right, cool. Thanks.’ And he just peaced out. It was pretty funny. But he’s somebody that I really admire, because he wears his feelings on his sleeve.”

West previously produced “Tell Your Friends” from The Weeknd’s 2005 album Beauty Behind The Madness, while The Weeknd sang on West’s The Life Of Pablo track “FML.”

Read the full GQ feature here.

The Weeknd Teases Some Thumping New Music In His ‘The Dawn Is Coming’ Video

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At various points over the past few months, The Weeknd has taken to social media to hint at something new to come. Now, it appears his post-After Hours era is kicking off, as today, he shared a video that includes nearly two minutes of new music.

The 100-second digital clip, titled “The Dawn Is Coming,” is a single shot that zooms over a dark landscape towards an orange sky and giant sun-like celestial body. All the while, some thumping electronic music that features some vocals from The Weeknd plays. At this point, it’s unclear if “The Dawn Is Coming” is the title of a new song, project, or just the name of the teaser itself.

The Weeknd is also the subject of a new GQ profile that was published today, and the piece describes some of his upcoming music: “The music hit the studio like a Mack truck. The new project is packed with party records. Like real-deal, illuminated-white-tiles-on-the-floor party records. Quincy Jones meets Giorgio Moroder meets the best-night-of-your-fucking-life party records. Not anachronistic disco stuff. (Not ‘cosplay,’ as Abel put it.) That sort of retro thing is having a moment right now in pop music, but these records are new. Sweaty. Hard. Drenched-suit, grinding-on-the-girl/boy-of-your-dreams party records.”

Belly, Young Thug, And The Weeknd Are Indestructible In The Explosive ‘Better Believe’ Video

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Toronto rapper Belly is on the comeback trail, with a new album, See You Next Wednesday, he’s promoting with a string of strong singles and revitalized videos including “IYKYK,” “Money On The Table,” and “Zero Love” featuring Moneybagg Yo. Today, he keeps the rollout rolling with the explosive video for his latest single, “Better Believe,” which features his XO Records leader The Weeknd and Atlanta trap mad scientist Young Thug.

The video seems to take a lot of inspiration from The Terminator, with Belly rapping in an auto factory while The Weeknd blows up an oil refinery and Thugger takes a direct hit from an 18-wheeler and walks it off (all references to scenes from the 1984 sci-fi thriller).

And while Belly gears up to release See You Next Wednesday, his first new album since 2018’s Immigrant, his collaborators also have a few things in the works. The Weeknd has hinted that he has a full body of work on the way, while Thug is set to produce and star in a musical dance dramedy, Throw It Back, with Tiffany Haddish and Us star Shahadi Wright Joseph.

Watch Belly’s “Better Believe” video featuring The Weeknd and Young Thug above.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ariana Grande And The Weeknd Link Up For A Visually Stunning Performance Of ‘Off The Table’

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Over the past few weeks, Ariana Grande has been sharing a handful of Vevo live performance videos, like one she did with Ty Dolla Sign earlier this month. Today brings another, and this time, she has linked up with The Weeknd for their Positions collaboration “Off The Table.” The pair is joined by a band on a verdant stage, dramatically lit by blue light from a giant oval light fixture above.

Grande previously said of making the song, “I didn’t know anyone was ever going to hear it. I just kind of was sitting in my room during quarantine, towards the very beginning and I just had set up my little home situation and a friend of Matt Bennett’s, Shintaro, had sent me a little folder of beats. He’s a really brilliant producer and he sent me a pack of beats and I pulled it up and I wrote a verse and a chorus, and I sent it over to Abel and I said, ‘Is this OK?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna write the second verse.’ It was a very intimate moment and writing process between two friends.”

Watch Grande and The Weeknd perform “Off The Table” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.