The Weeknd's final album under that moniker, and the final installment in his After Hours and Dawn FM trilogy, is one of the most anticipated releases of... 2023? 2024? 2025? We've known about it for a pretty long time, and in between heavy touring and his HBO show The Idol, he's had a lot of boxes to check off before entering a new era. However, Abel Tesfaye may be close to this conclusion, as he recently shared a pretty cryptic message on his Instagram Story. It's a repost of what seems like a tweet about a performance of "Save Your Tears" as cars zoom past him, and is followed up with an ominous premonition: "the end is near."
"There was a lot of trust with those cars," the post about The Weeknd's "Save Your Tears" performance read. "He didn't seem nervous at all, which really weirded us out, because these cars were just barreling by him and he was calm, kept his composure, walked slow and just didn't look back. It was kind of amazing." Whether or not he'll have similar stunts or another approach entirely for his next LP, we're sure it'll be something special.
The Weeknd's Mysterious Tease
Of course, The Weeknd's magnitude and artistry in the industry means that he connected with some of the best in the game for collaborations. Metro Boomin is one particularly close partner who recently confirmed that more work from them will appear on this upcoming album. Also, it's entirely possible that the Toronto superstar referred to something else with this social media post that doesn't have anything to do with the next project. But that seems unlikely, and there are few other places where XO fans' minds will go when they hear that phrase.
Meanwhile, we haven't heard much about Cash XO's bodyguard's shooting since it happened back in April. Hopefully things slowed down significantly and are in a much more safe, protected, and calm space now. Whether this hampered The Weeknd's process is a question we may never get the answer too, but whatever he's bringing us next, it's arriving soon. Given his stellar career and influence up until this point, most of us expect fireworks at the end of it all... at least, for this stage name.
