The Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye has shared a two-minute preview of his new album The Dawn. Entitled “The Dawn Is Coming,” the teaser clip includes an animated visual. Check it out below.
Update: The Weeknd has now announced the release of his new single, “Take My Breath,” which will premiere on Friday, August 6th. A portion of the song was aired during the Olympics on Monday night and can be heard below.
In a new interview with GQ, The Weeknd described The Dawn as “the album I’ve always wanted to make.”
GQ writer Mark Anthony Green further described The Weeknd’s new music as “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.”
Elsewhere in the interview with GQ, The Weeknd name-checked Arca, Kanye West, and Tyler the Creator as artists who he would like to work with in the future.
He also revealed that during the pandemic, he struck up a friendship with Jim Carrey. “On my 30th birthday, he surprised me,” Tesfaye recounted. “He just pulled up to my crib and took me to breakfast.”
The Dawn will mark The Weeknd’s fifth studio album to date and the follow-up to his massive 2020 record, After Hours.