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The Weeknd Wants To Make An Album With Madonna

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Author Laila Abuelhawa
Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye attends "The Idol" photocall at the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 23, 2023 in Cannes, France. Madonna speaks onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California

The Weeknd and Madonna recently released their new collaboration over the weekend with Playboi Carti. Their song “Popular” is from HBO’s newest series in which The Weeknd stars, The Idol. The singer, 33, said in a new interview that he wants to co-produce an album with Madonna.

“I’ve always wanted to work with her. I’ve always wanted to write and produce a Madonna album… well, co-produce with her, of course… Because she’s a visionary and she has such a singular vision,” the Canadian crooner, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, said. He added, “I just want to come into her world and create a classic Madonna album. That was always my dream. So this can be… Hopefully, this is the appetizer for that.”

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The Weeknd’s Next Album Might Be His ‘Last Hurrah’

“Popular” is the second single from the controversial HBO series co-created by The Weeknd, Sam Levinson and Reza Fahim, which premiered last night (June 4). The new song’s lyrics seem to mirror the show’s theme of fame and its pitfalls, as The Weeknd sings: “Beggin’ on her knees to be popular / That’s her dream, to be popular / Kill anyone to be popular / Sell her soul to be popular.” The music video shows footage of the stars attending the Cannes Festival premiere a few weeks ago.

Explaining the song’s creative process, Tesfaye said, “I’m proud of it. I’m definitely proud of it. Me and Carti had this… I mean, we’ve jammed out before. We’ve had a different version of this song prior.” He then revealed he had the vocals done “for a while” and “kind of just worked around it, and then kept it in the tuck. But now it felt like it was time.” The Weeknd added of “Madge” being on the song: “She’s the ultimate co-sign for this song, for this album, and for this TV show. And you’ll hear more of her in the show as well too. She is the ultimate pop star.”

Before “Popular,” the first song to drop from the upcoming The Idol soundtrack was “Double Fantasy” by The Weeknd and Future. The Idol Vol. 1 soundtrack releases in full on June 30. In his April cover story with Interview magazine, The Weeknd said David Bowie, Prince and Pink Floyd were some of his inspirations when curating the soundtrack. “I’ve been inspired by The Wall and Purple Rain and when Bowie was doing it, but even films like Shaft, the music is literally telling the story of the film,” he said. “But I want to take it to the next level. I want to challenge myself and I feel like, as a musician, I’m the best I’ve ever been.”

https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1664651693005389829

The Weeknd will embark on the After Hours Til Dawn Global Stadium Tour beginning tomorrow, June 6 in Portugal. The tour will make stops throughout Europe and Latin America before wrapping on October 25 in Mexico.

The Weeknd’s Most Cinematic Music Videos

Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd, was born on February 16, 1990. The Canadian crooner celebrates his birthday just two days after Valentine’s Day, which seems fitting: his music has romance, sure, but it’s a dark romance. It’s definitely not the stuff of Hallmark cards. Born and raised in Toronto, Tesfaye began his career in 2009 by anonymously releasing music on YouTube. The following year, he met producer Jeremy Rose, who had an idea for a dark contemporary R&B project. Rose produced songs “What You Need,” “Loft Music,” and “The Party & The After Party,” but they were scrapped. The producer let Abel keep the tracks he produced for him under the condition that he would be credited for them. In December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded “What You Need,” “Loft Music,” and “The Morning” to YouTube under the username xoxxxoooxo.

The songs began drawing attention, including that of Drake. He has collaborated with his fellow Canadian on five songs of Drake’s sophomore album, Take Care. Abel gained further recognition when his song “Earned It” was featured in 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey.

Before adopting the stage name The Weeknd, Tesfaye released music under the aliases the Noise and Kin Kane. His current stage name was chosen in tribute to when he dropped out of school, took his mattress, “left one weekend and never came home.” The dropping of the second “e” was to avoid trademark problems with the pop-rock band The Weekend. Tesfaye released his three mixtapes in 2011: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.

To commemorate the award-winning artist’s birthday, we’ve compiled our favorite music videos that took us to another place.

  • Secrets

    The Weeknd plays around with mirroring images and a red color palette for the music video for “Secrets.”

  • Blinding Lights

    Filmed like a mini movie, “Blinding Lights” takes inspiration from films Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Joker and Casino.

  • Sacrifice

    The Weeknd’s music videos for Dawn FM are some of his best to date, with “Sacrifice” being one of the coolest. Surrounded by cloaked figures dancing in a style reminiscent of Michael Jackson, with music to match, The Weeknd is offered sacrifice. At the end of the video, it is portrayed that his soul is being sucked out from above, much like a Dementor from Harry Potter.

  • Save Your Tears (Remix) feat. Ariana Grande

    The animated music video for “Save Your Tears” is stylized like animated series Rick and Morty, showing us the construction of an Ariana Grande robot.

  • You Right

    Doja Cat and The Weeknd dive into the horoscope realm for this ethereal music video for “You Right.” Doja Cat is a Libra and wore a hairpiece that mimicked her astrology sign, while The Weeknd evoked his Aquarius persona by pouring water (the “water-carrier”).

  • In Your Eyes

    Clearly inspired by classic horror films from the ’70s and ’80s (specifically, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), the music video for “In Your Eyes” follows a woman who is being chased down by The Weeknd but manages to get to him first.

  • Take My Breath

    Walking towards a rising sun on the horizon, The Weeknd’s music video for “Take My Breath” takes our breath away. For Dawn FM, the singer perfectly coordinated the music to visuals that further tell a story. Like a scene from Blade, party-goers are dressed in leather and chains at this underground rave.

  • Gasoline

    As disturbing as it is to see ants being that close to someone’s ear, The Weeknd went all out to create a storyline for “Gasoline.” As an old Abel’s hearing aid goes wonky while driving, he crashes his car and stumbles in a desolate place that transports him to a hellish club.

Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.

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