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Looks like The Weeknd may be planning to release some new music soon because he just previewed an unreleased track.
On Sunday night, April 26, the top-charting artist hit the stage for his concert at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro during the Latin American leg of his "After Hours til Dawn Tour." In a clip he shared on Instagram, you can see the singer, born Abel Tesfaye, performing a brand-new song while visuals directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike played behind him. Toward the end of the clip, Anitta surprises the crowd with a mic in her hand.
It's been over a year since Tesfaye released his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. The album holds 22 tracks, including hits like "Cry For Me," "Sao Paulo," "Timeless" featuring Playboi Carti, and more. It also features collaborations with Anitta, Future, Travis Scott, Lana Del Rey, Florence + The Machine, and others. The album was released ahead of his first major full-length film of the same name. Hurry Up Tomorrow stars Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is considered to be Tesfaye's final album as "The Weeknd." He first signaled the end of his longtime stage name in 2023 after he ditched his moniker on social media. In an interview with W Magazine, the singer said he was "getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter." Last year, Tesfaye told The New York Times that his album and accompanying film would most likely be his final act as The Weeknd. He explained how losing his voice during his After Hours tour stop in Los Angeles in 2022 helped inspire his desire to retire his beloved moniker.
“My voice failing me, or me failing my voice, however you want to look at it — I really felt like I went up there and my body was telling me to sit down, it was telling me, you have nothing else to say,” Tesfaye said at the time.
Although he hyped up the end of his longtime moniker, it's possible that "The Weeknd" could make a comeback. Right before the film debuted in the theaters, Tesfaye told Entertainment Weekly his last album could be more of a "rebirth" than the end of his run as "The Weeknd."
"It feels like [the death of 'The Weeknd']," he said. "I mean, I've kind of toyed with the idea in the past with albums. But it could also just be a rebirth. Who knows?"
Stay tuned for what's next from Abel Tesfaye.