Barring that whole GRAMMY snub fiasco, The Weeknd easily had his best year ever thanks to the enduring success of his fourth studio album, ‘After Hours.’
But, instead of resting on his laurels, the 30-year-old is already looking to the future and plotting the blockbuster project’s successor.
Acting as TMRW magazine’s latest cover star, the publication dedicated a whopping 100 pages to the Canadian superstar – a feature that sees him not only dish on his meteoric rise to fame but also his plans for the future.
See highlights inside:
ON HIS ETHIOPIAN INFLUENCES:
“My natural singing voice was inspired and shaped by Ethiopian music. The older I got, I was exposed to more music, and my voice became a chameleon going into different characters with each album. By following my own path and breaking industry norms, it seems to be influencing others.”
ON WHAT’S INSPIRING HIS NEXT ALBUM:
“I HAVE BEEN MORE INSPIRED AND CREATIVE DURING THE PANDEMIC THAN I MIGHT NORMALLY BE WHILE ON THE ROAD…THE PANDEMIC, THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT AND THE TENSIONS OF THE ELECTION HAVE MOSTLY CREATED A SENSE OF GRATITUDE FOR WHAT I HAVE AND CLOSENESS WITH THE PEOPLE NEAR ME.”
ON TURNING 30 THIS YEAR:
“I WAS LASER FOCUSED BACK THEN AND I’M LASER FOCUSED RIGHT NOW. THIS HAS BEEN THE STORY OF MY 20S. I FEEL LIKE I SPENT THE LAST 10 YEARS CREATING A SOUND AND MOST OF MY CAREER I’VE EITHER BEEN RUNNING AWAY FROM IT OR DUPLICATING IT. AFTER HOURS WAS THE PERFECT PIECE OF ART FOR ME TO SHOW MY TENURE IN THE INDUSTRY.”
Click here to read the interview in full.
*****
The spread above comes just three months after the GRAMMY winner took to ‘Rolling Stone’ to declare his next album may drop before ‘quarantine ends.’
Click here to read more about that.
![Behind the Scenes: Future, Metro Boomin, & The Weeknd's 'Young Metro' Music Video [Watch]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/young-metro-thatgrapejuice-2024-behind-scenes-weeknd-boomin-future-464x260.jpg "Behind the Scenes: Future, Metro Boomin, & The Weeknd's 'Young Metro' Music Video [Watch].")
saucy santana Is coming 💅🏿💅🏿💅🏿 Weeknd who??? F u c k it up b I t c h💁🏿♀️💁🏿♀️💁🏿♀️
Dude you talking bout a sound when you trying to sound like a white boy he knows that right.
And dating non-black women 💅🏿💅🏿💅🏿 He’s so white in his deepest heart, MJ inspired him I guess
Abel we don’t want new music and don’t care about your super bowl performance either. A Ciara halftime show would outsell yours lil bxtch.
Come on now lol…Abel grew up listening to Ciara and never saw her ass at a halftime show for the NFL lmaooo…maybe a Russell and Ciara halftime PARNO tape might break the internet, but chile please with the absolute delusions 😂 💯
“Do anything for clout, they do anything for clout”
A couple of things.. chart data released the top 10 best selling downloads and guess what wasn’t there? Blinding lights, a song that people believed was the biggest song of the year 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️. Two now he might get the grammy nomination because his next song will have purpose and not keep talking about the same subject. He has been inspired by bey
Lmaoooo gurl shut up, hes not gonna get inspired by some 6k selling flop, you roaches swear that flop inspires everybody when she cant even stay on the charts past one week lmaooo 😂😂😂
Really? I knew I couldn’t bring myself to like it, despite the hoopla, for a reason. If that data is correct, glad I was too.
He has the biggest song WORLDWIDE this year and STILL in the Top 10 of WORLDWIDE ITunes after a whole year so STFU 😂 🤳🏽
https://kworb.net/ww/
After 393 days, FACTS 💋 One of the biggest songs EVER 🤳🏽
Plus, he WROTE and performed for Beyonce on Lemonade too, arguably her best work! Some of y’all stay stuck on some dumb ish 😂🤳🏽
Typical. They always get “inspired” to be black after they get played by the industry. I don’t recall him marching in any Black Lives Matter protests or even talking about it when he was topping the charts back in the summer. But now that the Grammys played him, he’s all black inspired. Lol.
He’s Canadian, so a cultural black. Had a friend like that. They cannot relate to US black folk AT ALL.
I guess you was not watch him this whole year he did blm thing for the start he give over one million bucks for that after he dropped after hours he also didn’t do show on one late night show’s back in 2016 when 45 ran first time this all ways been him
Chameleon voice? Where? When? Same high pitch falsetto all day. Don’t know who he is on this LP. Debut & sophomore were lit imo.
“Take off my disguise, I’m living someone else’s life” is the first line we HEAR on After Hours! This is an artist that KNOWS what he’s doing….he’s not throwing ish at a wall trying to see what STICKS like some of these…..chile lol 🤳🏽💋
He has perfect taste in women at least.
You have terrible taste PERIOD Clarkmila 😂 Get your own ish, why you riding mine? 🤣🤳🏽
The Weeknd’s WHOLE CATALOG is one of the most consistently DOPE bodies of work that I’ve EVER heard 🎶🤳🏽 A TRUE artist, The SCAMMYS can live in DELUSION like they’ve been doing since the beginning 😂 He’s won 3, so I don’t know WHY the HATERS keep ACTING like The SCAMMYS aren’t being shady as HELL lol….they know EXACTLY who he is and his music…must have been living under A ROCK in quarantine ALL year lmaoooo 💯 Blinding Lights will STILL be on the charts AFTER Driving Miss Daisy 🤳🏽 After Hours will STILL sound better too lmaoooo