USA Today
The highly anticipated album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” was released Jan. 31 marking The Weeknd, Abel Tesfaye’s, long-awaited launch to the third chapter of his “After Hours” trilogy.
Tesfaye secretly features several well-known artists on the album, such as Lana Del Rey, Travis Scott, Future and Anitta.
Of the 22 tracks, two songs were released prior to Jan. 31. “Timeless,” featuring Playboi Carti, was the lead single of the album, which came out Sept. 27 to streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. The song had nearly six million streams on the day of its release in the United States, and that number extends to 10 million worldwide. The second single of the album, “São Paulo,” featuring Brazilian singer Anitta, was released Oct. 30.
The two previous songs were launched alongside music videos, with “Timeless” receiving 54 million views and “São Paulo” receiving 31 million. Amongst the tracks that were released with the album, “Red Terror” was the only one with a music video, which came out Feb. 1 and leaves fans wondering if other music videos will come out in the near future.
Along with the release of the album, Tesfaye announced a corresponding North American tour that is set to begin May 9. Throughout the tour, Playboy Carti will be joining Tesfaye on stage to perform in a majority of states. Several fans were ecstatic to hear the announcement for the new tour after his concert at the Rose Bowl, which was set for Jan. 25 in Los Angeles (L.A.), was cancelled due to the severe wildfires that spread throughout Southern California (SoCal).
Out of respect for SoCal, Tesfaye decided to postpone his album, which was originally set to launch Jan. 24. All proceeds made off the 15th track of the album, “Take Me Back To LA,” are being donated to the L.A. regional food bank in order to provide emergency food assistance to those impacted by the fires.
Later in the year, a film inspired by the album will be released, starring Tesfaye alongside both Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, for a psychological thriller directed by Trey Edwards Shults. The film will be shown only in theaters across the country in May of 2025.
“Hurry Up Tomorrow,” as well as the song with the same name, signifies the ending of Tesfaye being known as The Weeknd. After 14 years of success through the name, he is now saying goodbye and beginning a new chapter in his life.