Brian Ziff
The Weeknd doesn't do anything by halves. A day after announcing a “never-before-seen” concert in Brazil in September, he dropped an elaborate video teaser of what his next project will look and sound like. It's the third and final chapter in his After Hours/Dawn FM/TBD trilogy. Last year, The Weeknd hinted to Variety that the trilogy would include a visual element, possibly a film. The new video concludes with the sentence, “There are three chapters to this story.”
The minute-plus clip, which he posted to his Instagram Story, is a surreal series of dreamlike images from the past four years of his music career. There are the poker themes, the red suits and sunglasses, and the sports cars he showed off in “Blinding Lights” and other videos from his 2020 smash hit album “After Hours,” then move on to the image of an old man from “Dawn FM,” then the hooded character from his “After Hours Til the Dawn” tour, and finally new elements. A character, presumably a mannequin, wears a mask that closely resembles his own face (he wore many masks on tour), and finally a character resembling him as a young boy, surrounded by a horde of white mannequins reaching out to him. Throughout, there's hazy music, mostly synthesizers and The Weeknd's focused vocals, a blurred remix of presumably new (and possibly old) material.
The clip ends with sunlight shining on the boy's head and grass and flowers growing and spreading, making the themes of death, salvation and rebirth quite clear.
In fact, this all ties into a vague hint he gave to Variety when he was interviewed primarily about his HBO series “Idol” in June 2023. When asked if there would be new music after “Idol” and the tour, he replied: “Yes, I think there will be new music.”
“I'm just finishing up this story, the third part of a trilogy,” he said. “The title will be announced very soon, but it's not the title that some of my fans are thinking of… The title that they're thinking of is actually a song on the album, but it's not the actual album title.” [It’s unclear which speculative title he’s referring to.] So I just say that.”
He dropped a few more little hints during the conversation but was coy when pressed for specific details.
Variety asked, “There's an album coming out, and apparently an accompanying film or video project, which seems to have themes of redemption, renewal and revitalization.”
After a long silence, he replied, “Well, I'm not going to answer any more questions about that!” (Laughs).
More is expected to be revealed at the concert on September 7 at Estadio Morumbis in São Paulo, which will be produced by Live Nation and will debut “never-before-seen material,” according to a statement. The Weeknd has been largely out of the public's attention since wrapping up his After Hours Till Dawn North American and European tour last year and appearing on The Idol last summer. His stadium tours have drawn more than three million people over the course of two years.