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The Weeknd is gearing up for the final chapter in his After Hours trilogy. The singer (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) revealed the name of the third album in the series on Wednesday (Sept. 4) in a dramatic video setting up the denouement of his musical story arc.
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Though Hurry Up Tomorrow doesn’t currently have an official release date yet, Tesfaye set up the follow-up to After Hours (2020) and Dawn FM (2022) with yet another elaborate backstory filled with intrigue and vague menace.
“Yesterday was fourteen years ago… We held our breath, falling into a shimmering sea in the after hours of the night,” began the scroll in an Instagram video backed by spare, ominous instrumental music that teased his next era via phrases from earlier songs.
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“Attempted to cleanse the wounds with melodies and lights, a bulletproof bandage to shield what lies beneath,” he continued. “In a place where the seasons never changed, where time ceased to exist. But therein lays the problem. Today has felt like an endless spin, I keep distorting the truth, immune to the dizziness, numb to the nausea. What lies beneath — screams in silence.”
The spooky story continued with more allusions to the songs that came before, with the crawl adding, “I look in the mirror and feel both old and new, stuck in limbo and unable to move. I still haven’t faced myself. More songs could help, but what do I have left to say? Woe is me in my gilded cage, right? The very thing that once made me invincible failed me on the world stage. A new trauma surfaced, opening floodgates… when today ends, I’ll discover who I am.”
According to a press release announcing the album, it represents “the creative apex of the project, serving as the third and final chapter crafted with existential and self-referential themes as seen with the latest visionary teasers that have set fans ablaze with anticipation for this concluding installment.”
Last month, Tesfaye posted a cryptic three-minute CGI-heavy teaser featuring a digitally animated toddler crawling through a creepy mansion. A previous teaser from July featured the vague promise that “There are Three Chapters in this Tale” along with a trailer in which a digital toddler runs through a field and eludes danger before ascending to heaven.
The singer is performing a special one-off concert at Estádio Morumbi in São Paulo, Brazil on Saturday (Sept. 7) which will be livestreamed on YouTube; 10% of the proceeds from all merch sales at the show and online will go to the Brazilian Soul Fund of BrazilFoundation, which supports communities affected by natural disasters and economic hardship in southern Brazil.
Tesfaye is also about to open the “Halloween Horror Nights” experience at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, “The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy,” which opens on Thursday (Sept. 5) and runs through Nov. 3.
Check out the preview below.
Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Espresso” reigns as Billboard’s No. 1 global song of the summer for 2024.
The race for Billboard’s No. 1 global song this summer reflects performance on the weekly Billboard Global 200, from charts dated June 8-Sept. 7, spotlighting the biggest songs worldwide from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The Global 200 ranks songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate.
(Billboard recognizes that countries in the Southern Hemisphere were not in summer the past three months. Listeners in those territories might at least feel a bit warmer browsing the biggest worldwide hits over that span.)
“Espresso” buzzed to No. 1 on the Global 200 chart in June and spent all 14 weeks of the summer tracking span in the top three, the only song with such a perfect record in that stretch, and more than twice the total of any other hit; Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” and Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” logged six weeks each in the top three in that span and finish the summer at Nos. 2 and 4, respectively.
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Here is a rundown of the 10 biggest global songs of the summer for 2024, with Carpenter the only act with multiple titles on the tally:
No. 1, “Espresso,” Sabrina Carpenter
No. 2, “Birds of a Feather,” Billie Eilish
No. 3, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey
No. 4, “Please Please Please,” Sabrina Carpenter
No. 5, “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar
No. 6, “I Had Some Help,” Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen
No. 7, “Beautiful Things,” Benson Boone
No. 8, “Million Dollar Baby,” Tommy Richman
No. 9, “Too Sweet,” Hozier
No. 10, “Gata Only,” FloyyMenor X Cris Mj
Jung Kook’s “Seven,” featuring Latto, reigned as the No. 1 global song of the summer of 2023. Notably, led by Jung Kook, from South Korea, seven songs in the top 10 a year ago involved billed artists born outside the U.S. This year, paced by Pennsylvania native Carpenter, U.S.-born acts claim the top eight spots, followed by Hozier, from Ireland, and FloyyMenor and Cris Mj, both from Chile.
Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen is the only act to repeat in this year’s season-ending top 10 from last year. Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” on which he’s featured, places at No. 6, after Wallen’s “Last Night” wrapped at No. 6 for 2023.
As previously reported, “I Had Some Help” rules as the No. 1 title on Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart for the 2024 summer season, as based on performance on the weekly, U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
There’s simply no polite way to say the following: according to Katy Perry, there are a few household chores her partners, such as, say, fiancé actor Orlando Bloom, can do around the house that will result in specific, enthusiastic, sexual acts. Perhaps it’s best to just let Perry explain, as she did in NSFW language […]
It goes without saying that Taylor Swift, technically, has nothing to do with football. Besides, of course, dating Super Bowl star tight end Travis Kelce for the past year. But if you are new to this whole NFL thing, you might think that Swift was one of the leagues premiere athletes based on a viewing of the leagues promotional sizzle reel for this weekend’s official kick-off of the season.
In fact, you only have to wait, literally, two seconds, before spotting Swift hanging in a luxury box with Mama Kelce and shouting her support for Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs in the 30-second promo clip. And there she is, five seconds later, once again flipping out alongside Donna Kelce.
If you watch closely, you might notice that the pop superstar actually gets more screen time than any actual NFL star, including three-time Super Bowl champ (and three-time Super Bowl MVP) and Kelce’s QB, Patrick Mahomes. As the video moves through the months, we also get a glimpse of Dolly Parton, who famously donned the skimpy Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit last season, swaggy fedora-sports agent Sean Stellato… and then Swift again, dressed in a Kelce No. 87 puffer coat and beanie hat.
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And then, a few seconds later, there she is again giving Kelce a big kiss on the field after the Chiefs punched their ticket to Super Bowl LVIII before a brief glimpse of Usher during the Super Bowl halftime show makes way for another shot of Swift, this time in the luxury box pounding a drink with Brittany Mahomes and Ice Spice.
To be fair, since Swift and Kelce began dating near the beginning of last season, the singer has dominated the gridiron in the same way she does the charts, with reports that ratings were up last year, especially among women 12-17 and 18-49. Swift recently wrapped the European leg of her Eras Tour and while it’s unknown if she’ll be back in the box on Thursday night (Sept. 5) when the Chiefs take on the Baltimore Ravens in their season opener, Mahomes recently revealed that Swift is “really interested” in football and asks great questions, joking that “she’s already drawing up plays.”
Kelce seconded that emotion on The Rich Eisen Show recently, when he said that Swift has learned so much about football over the past year that she is, in fact, making prettygoodplay suggestions. “She had just been so open to learning the game. She didn’t know much about the rules and everything,” he said. “I think what makes her so good in her profession is that she’s so detailed in every aspect of it, from the words to her music and even the releases and the music videos and everything. She’s just so detailed and apart of it, that I think she was just curious about the profession. I know none of the plays have gotten to Coach [Andy] Reid yet. If they ever do, I’ll let everyone know it was her creation.”
Of course, he added, “she’s a little biased and just creates plays for me.”
Check out the NFL video below.
Billie Eilish stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night (Sept. 3) to chat about her new album Hit Me Hard and Soft, her creative process, and the connection she shares with her fans. At just 22, the singer-songwriter already boasts seven Grammy Awards and has broken streaming records worldwide.
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“I’ve always been such an album lover,” she told Kimmel, explaining why she prefers to release full-length projects. “I really love when something feels like one piece and is cohesive and thought through.”
Eilish, who made history as the youngest person to sweep the top four Grammy categories in 2020, shared how she carefully arranges the flow of each album. “I’ll write down all the names, tear them up, move them around… it’s all about dynamics and the flow.”
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The “Lunch” singer also touched on her long-standing relationship with her fans, likening seeing familiar faces at her concerts over the years to “seeing old friends again.”
“What’s been so cool is that all of these fans, all of my little family, we’ve been growing up at the same time,” she told Kimmel. “So many kids, especially in L.A. because I’m from here and I’m around and stuff, when I was first starting out there would be certain kids that I would see at everything I would do, and we were all the same age.”
Eilish continued, “So they would come to stuff and I would see them multiple times a year and then not for a couple years, and then I’d see them again. Over the years I’ve seen the same faces multiple times, and it feels like seeing my old friends again.”
Elsewhere in the interview, she treated the audience to an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip of her and her brother, Finneas, working on the track “Birds of a Feather” while in the back of an SUV in Brazil.
“This is such a normal thing for me and Finneas,” she said, referring to their sibling collaboration that has produced multiple hit records, including the James Bond theme “No Time to Die.” “We’ve recorded everywhere—from a tour bus bunk to little hotel rooms. It’s casual, but we love it.”
With her Hit Me Hard and Soft World Tour kicking off Sept. 29 in Quebec, Eilish shared how she balances life on the road. “I don’t ever want to resent it,” she explained. “I love touring, but you can start hating yourself if you’re gone for too long, so I make sure to take breaks in between.”
Eilish’s latest album Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in June, marking the biggest weekly album units of her career. All 10 tracks from the album made it into the Billboard Hot 100’s top 40, including “Lunch” at No. 5, her highest debut to date. The album also secured 90,000 units in vinyl sales, earning Eilish her fifth consecutive No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
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After Britney Spears‘ former assistant suggested that Emma Roberts should star in the upcoming Britney biopic, the actress called it her “true dream” to play the pop princess. Well, Billboard also picked our dream cast for the biopic, and (sorry to Emma), we have a different Britney in mind: Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney. On the […]
Sabrina Carpenter achieved a career milestone this week as her latest studio album, Short n’ Sweet, topped the Billboard 200 albums chart, marking her first leader on the tally. To celebrate, the 25-year-old pop star took to social media to thank fans for their support. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest […]
Taylor Swift is slowly becoming a football mastermind. Travis Kelce recently sat down for an interview on The Rich Eisen Show, where the Kansas City Chiefs tight end revealed that his pop superstar girlfriend has learned so much about football, that she started making play suggestions. “She had just been so open to learning the […]
Halsey just revealed a new trick up her sleeve, but it’s the pop star’s fans who will be doing the magic this time. Ahead of their upcoming album The Great Impersonator, Halsey announced plans to send fans on a scavenger hunt through five cities across the world in a cryptic video posted Tuesday (Sept. 3). […]
Elton John is on the road to recovery. The “Benny and the Jets” singer took to social media on Tuesday (Sept. 3) to reveal that he has been struggling with a “severe eye infection” that left him “with only limited vision in one eye.” He continued in his statement, “I am healing, but it’s an […]