There are moments in an artist’s career that feel cinematic, so much so that they almost seem orchestrated by fate. For The Weeknd, one of those moments came at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on what was supposed to be the final date of his 2022 tour. When he opened his mouth to sing, nothing came out. It was as if his voice, his greatest instrument, the tool that had catapulted him from the shadowy corners of Toronto’s underground music scene to the grandest stages in the world, had abandoned him.
Abel Tesfaye has never been one to shy away from darkness. His music has long been a chronicle of excess, heartbreak, and self-destruction, wrapped in glossy, cinematic production. But that moment of silence on stage, in front of thousands of fans, triggered something deeper: a reckoning. What followed was a period of intense reflection that birthed Hurry Up Tomorrow, his sixth studio album and, by all accounts, his final project as The Weeknd.

Tesfaye has called Hurry Up Tomorrow the concluding chapter of a trilogy that began with After Hours in 2020 and continued with 2022’s Dawn FM. If After Hours was the high of excess and Dawn FM was the purgatory between life and death, then Hurry Up Tomorrow is the comedown—the moment of realization that there’s no way out except forward. It’s the final act of a character who has reached the pinnacle of fame only to realize he may have lost himself in the process.
The album plays like a fever dream unraveling in slow motion, an epic 22-track swan song that dissects fame’s seductive yet destructive nature. From the very first notes, there’s a sense of finality, as if we’re watching the curtain rise on a performance that ends with the artist disappearing into the void. “Take Me Back to LA” pulses with nighttime synths, evoking the city that both made and haunted him. He reminisces about a time “when my blood never tasted like wine,” a clear nod to the intoxicating highs and lows that have defined his career. On “Drive,” he paints fame as a disease, shimmering production masking the weight of his words. And when he reaches “Wake Me Up,” a collaboration with French duo Justice, there’s an eerie sense of peace in his delivery: “No afterlife, no other side.” It’s not just about escaping fame—it’s about surrendering to the idea that nothing exists beyond the now.
For an artist allegedly bidding farewell to his alter ego, Tesfaye didn’t go quietly. The album boasts an impressive lineup of guests, each adding their own shade of melancholy to the project. Future is one of the only artists who can match The Weeknd’s ability to turn hedonism into heartbreak and joins him on “Enjoy the Show,” a deceptively sweet R&B slow-burner that feels like the last sip of champagne before the party ends. Anitta brings nocturnal energy to “São Paulo,” layering baile funk rhythms into the album’s late-night escapism. And then there’s Lana Del Rey, whose voice on “The Abyss” feels almost prophetic. “What’s the point of staying? It’s going up in flames,” she sings, her words landing with a new weight after Los Angeles was devastated by wildfires.
But the most gut-wrenching moment comes on “Without a Warning.” The lyrics“Take me to a time/When I was young/And my heart could take the drugs and heartache without loss/But now my bones are frail/And my voice fails/And my tears fall without a warning”—feel like the thesis of The Weeknd’s entire existence. It’s an artist reflecting on the price he’s paid for success, acknowledging that no matter how broken he is, the crowd will still scream his name.
Tesfaye has spent the last few years hinting at the death of The Weeknd as we know him. He’s spoken openly about retiring the moniker, about evolving into something beyond the persona that defined him for over a decade. If Hurry Up Tomorrow is truly his farewell, it’s a masterful way to go out—an album that encapsulates everything he’s built while simultaneously dismantling it.
But knowing Tesfaye, this isn’t the end. The Weeknd may be gone, but Abel Tesfaye is still here, and if history has taught us anything, it’s that reinvention is inevitable. Whether he returns under his real name or something else entirely, one thing is certain: He won’t be able to escape the stage for long. Because as much as he may want to disappear, the world isn’t ready to let him go.
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