The Weeknd says his song Faith 'is about the darkest time of my entire life. I was getting really, really tossed up and going through a lot of personal stuff. I got arrested in Vegas'
is at a rehearsal for his appearance on what will be the last live episode of “Saturday Night Live” for the foreseeable future — although no one realizes it at the time.
But “I cut that discussion off right away,” The Weeknd says. “Fans had been waiting for the album, and I felt like I had to deliver it. The commercial success is a blessing, especially because the odds were against me: [Music] streaming is down 10%, stores are closed, people can’t go to concerts, but I didn’t care. I knew how important it was to my fans.”
“‘The Mask’ was the first film I ever went to see in a theater — my mom took me when I was 4, and it blew me away,” he enthuses. The two mutual fans were introduced in a text last year, and Weeknd invited Carrey to hear some of his new music. “I texted him the address of my condo in L.A., and he said, ‘I can literally see your place from my balcony,’ and we got out telescopes and were waving to each other,” he continues.
Asked whether such moments happen often, he turns a little sheepish. “No, man! This whole album process has been so surreal, in the best way possible.”, “Abel has his own unique artistic voice — that’s the hallmark of a genuinely great, long-term artist. I’m utterly thrilled that the DNA for ‘Your Song’ has found its way into ‘Scared to Live.’ It’s the greatest compliment a songwriter can ever receive.
Every element of The Weeknd’s background is present in his music. Born in 1990 to Ethiopian immigrants who split up when he was a toddler, he grew up trilingual in a multicultural neighborhood outside Toronto filled with fellow East Africans as well as people from India, the Middle East and the Caribbean.
Weeknd’s rough-and-tumble youth, which included a brief stretch of homelessness and a long stretch of substance abuse is directly addressed in the opening lyrics of the plainly autobiographical “Snowchild,” from “After Hours”: “I used to pray when I was 16 / If I didn’t make it, then I’d probably make my wrist bleed. … I was singing notes while my n—as played with six keys [kilos]. … N—as had no homes, we were living in the dead streets.
His initial concerts displayed growing pains as well, so he took dancing lessons and amped up his live show, and, most significantly, he unleashed the latent Michael Jackson in his high, angelic singing voice. It seemed like an instant transformation, but it wasn’t. “People saw the rise but have no idea how hard Abel and our small team worked for years before we got the recognition,” Slaiby says. “Abel created this whole new R&B wave everyone is on now.
However, when asked about the pioneering French electronic-music duo Daft Punk — whose two collaborations drove “Starboy,” Weeknd’s 2016 follow-up to “Beauty Behind the Madness,” to triple-platinum status — his voice takes on tones of awe. “Oh my God, that’s different,” he says. “Those guys are one of the reasons I do this. I didn’t even care if we made music, I just wanted to be friends with them, and that’s how it started — I met them out partying in L.A.
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