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The Weeknd Previews Giant Sorayama Statue for European Tour

A towering sexy robot figure is spotted centerstage..

Following the North American leg of his “After Hours Til Dawn” global stadium tour, The Weeknd now prepares to head to the UK, Europe, and Latin America for the second leg — starting in Manchester and ending in Santiago.

While in North America, the centerpiece for The Weeknd’s stage design was a  large glowing moon , the second leg will see the alien teased in the concert posters come to life in the form of Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama ‘s sexy robot. The towering figure commissioned by the Weeknd is seen in Sorayama’s signature silver metallic finish and placed centerstage.

  在 Instagram 查看這則貼文   Abel Tesfaye（@theweeknd）分享的貼文

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The Weeknd × HAJIME SORAYAMA

After hours til dawn global stadium europe & latin america tour.

FIELD : STAGE ARTWORK PRODUCTION & STAGE COSTUME DESIGN DETAILS : Produced and managed DATE : EUROPE TOUR / MAY-AUG 2023 LATIN AMERICA TOUR / SEP-OCT 2023

The Weeknd × HAJIME SORAYAMA SEXY ROBOT STATUE @ AFTER HOURS TIL DAWN GLOBAL STADIUM EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA TOUR

Produced 7 meters tall Sexy Robot statue by Japanese legendary artist HAJIME SORAYAMA specially for The Weeknd global tour. Sexy Robot became a center piece of the special stage for The Weeknd 's AFTER HOURS TILL DAWN GLOBAL STADIUM TOUR.

The Weeknd × HAJIME SORAYAMA & TETSUYA NAKAMURA @ AFTER HOURS TIL DAWN GLOBAL STADIUM EUROPE TOUR

Produced Silver chromed mask and mic / mic stand designed by HAJIME SORAYAMA & TETSUYA NAKAMURA specially for The Weeknd. All items were hand made and crafted by TETSUYA NAKAMURA. These items became iconic and were later added to the game “FORTNITE” together with The Weeknd.

The Weeknd × HAJIME SORAYAMA & TETSUYA NAKAMURA @ AFTER HOURS TIL DAWN GLOBAL STADIUM LATIN AMERICA TOUR

Produced Silver chromed mask and armer designed by HAJIME SORAYAMA & TETSUYA NAKAMURA. All items were hand made and crafted by TETSUYA NAKAMURA. New mask included build-in LED light, captivate all the fans attended the tour.

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The Weeknd and Sorayama Tease Fans During ‘After Hours’

In preparation of  The After Hours til Dawn tour , Abel “ The Weeknd ” Tesfaye teases fans with the art of Japanese icon,  Hajime Sorayama .

Debuting a larger-than-life illustration by Soroyama, The Weeknd gave fans a sneak peek of the tour’s set design via  Instagram . According to Tesfaye’s caption, Soroyama was commissioned for the second leg of the tour, taking place in the UK , Europe and Latin America.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd)

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The Weeknd Sets ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ North American Stadium Tour

By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

The Weeknd has finally detailed the new dates for his long-postponed North American tour, with the singer set to embark on his first-ever stadium tour this summer.

The first leg of the After Hours Til Dawn Tour begins July 8 with a hometown gig at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. After that, Abel Tesfaye will return to the football stadium confines of his Super Bowl halftime performance for 17 more shows at NFL venues spanning from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.

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The Weeknd’s trek, then the After Hours World Tour, was originally set for 2020  and then  postponed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic; it was next rescheduled for early 2022 before the Weeknd opted to push the dates back again in order to bring his live experience to football stadiums.

Now dubbed the After Hours Til Dawn tour to incorporate his new LP Dawn FM , the first leg of the jaunt will now also feature Doja Cat as special guest. Check out the Weeknd’s site for ticket information.

The singer also launched his XO humanitarian fund in conjunction with the United Nations World Food Programme. The singer will donate one dollar from each ticket in addition to a $500,000 donation from the singer and an additional $1 million donation from World Food Program USA.

The Weeknd Tour Dates July 8 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre July 14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field July 16 – New York, NY @ Metlife Stadium July 21 – Boston, MA @ Gillette Stadium July 24 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field July 27 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field July 30 – Washington, DC @ FedexField August 4 – Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium August 6 – Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium August 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium August 14 – Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium August 18 – Denver, CO @ Empower Field at Mile High August 20 – Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium August 23 – Vancouver, BC @ BC Place August 25 – Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field August 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Levi’s Stadium August 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ State Farm Stadium September 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium

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The Weeknd Unveils Futuristic Hajime Sorayama Statue in His Home

The Weeknd? is adding to his artistic home decor, and this time, he unveiled a futuristic new piece.

By Rania Aniftos

Rania Aniftos

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The Weeknd is adding to his artistic home decor, and this time, he unveiled a futuristic new piece.

The crooner, who isn’t very active on social media typically, took to Twitter on Friday (Oct. 18) to share his Hajime Sorayama golden statue, shaped as the characteristic fembot.

The figure, in silver, was debuted during Dior’s Pre-Fall 2019 menswear show in Tokyo in 2018. Sorayama is known for designing the original Sony AIBO robot dog, rereleased last year.

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my baby arrived —— pic.twitter.com/lHzZwphFbO — The Weeknd (@theweeknd) October 18, 2019

“my baby arrived,” he wrote alongside photos of his new collectible.The art piece might also be a slight tribute to rumored on-again girlfriend Bella Hadid, who walked in the previously mentioned Dior show, and was featured in A Magazine this past spring in the form of a Sorayama statue.

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The Weeknd Pays Homage to MF DOOM With New Tour Mask

Review: The blinding lights of the 'After Hours 'til Dawn' World Tour were worth the wait

The weeknd's sold out world tour came to glendale and blew expectations over the moon—literally.

After postponed dates and cancellations, The Weeknd's "After Hours Til Dawn" World Tour to to Glendale, Ariz. on Aug. 30, transforming two critically acclaimed albums into an immersive experience.

After two years since the Weeknd released his record-breaking fourth studio album, the "After Hours," and announced a global tour, the R&B pop idol is back with a vengeance to give fans the tour they have been waiting for on the “After Hours ’til Dawn” world tour.

The original plans for the "After Hours" tour were postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the spike in cases around the release of the album in March 2020. The tour, which was slated to start in June 2020, had to be pushed back into early 2022. But before the shows could even start, the Weeknd announced in late October 2021 that the tour was canceled while promising something bigger and better on the horizon. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Weeknd (@theweeknd)

The 32-year-old Canadian artist delivered on his promises. After the release of his fifth studio album, "Dawn FM," the singer released new dates in an all new world tour. With bigger venues, the tour was shortened from 59 shows and venues worldwide to nearly 20 shows with more to be announced for the European and Asian legs of the tour. 

I was lucky enough to have bought tickets to two shows from the original "After Hours" 2020 tour. When the tour was canceled and I was refunded for my purchases, I bought another ticket for the new tour date at State Farm Stadium on Aug. 30. 

#AfterHoursTilDawnTour 🌅 pic.twitter.com/s1ceRdGPcV — lisa🪕🪗📯 (@anxieteandbread) September 2, 2022

Doors opened at 4 p.m., and I was ecstatic to be able to walk across the expanse of the field to get to my seat near the stage where I was able to get a full view of the intricate and daunting backdrop. An eerie city skyline was the setting for the overdue show of a lifetime, lit up by smoke and spotlights. 

Around 6:30 p.m., opener Mike Dean began with an electro pop mix. An hour later opener DJ Kaytranada took to the stage to perform his top hits. After the controversial departure of Doja Cat as an opener, the first act was somewhat underwhelming. I still found myself bobbing my head along to the few songs I did recognize. 

Finally—when the sun set and the stadium was full of fans packed in from the floor to the rows of seats that nearly touched the roof—the Weeknd took the stage and brought out the fire and flashing lights, flaunting the Vegas lights inspiration from his most recent album. 

A culmination of two albums and three years of bubbling anticipation, the show stretched for an hour and a half with every new song bringing a crowd-pleaser. Taking from new and old albums alike, the Weeknd paid tribute to some of the songs that made him a household name. 

He opened strong with the dark, but delicate opening track from the "After Hours" album, "Alone Again." Alongside masked red-draped dancers, the Weeknd performed a handful of the somber and electro-rock songs from his "Beauty Behind the Madness" 2015 era; several funk and upbeat tracks from his record-breaking 2016 "Starboy" album ; and even performed his song "Kiss Land" from his very first studio album from 2013. It was an ethereal experience for fans who have stuck around for so long and hadn’t heard the song being performed live in nine years. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝕷𝖎𝖘𝖆 ✌🏼 (@ana.lisa.exe)

The closing medley was made up of some of the Weeknd's most popular songs from his previous two albums. The show ended with a bang that concluded with the record-breaking "Blinding Lights" that had every phone light in the air. With the addition of the oversized moon and the crowd of thousands singing along, it felt like a dream being able to stand in a stadium full of people excited to finally be able to see some of their favorite songs performed live for the first time. 

With stellar vocals, effortless crowd interaction and control, as well as the over-the-top light show, the Weeknd put on what I would consider to be one of the best live shows I’ve ever been to. 

From the amount of jumping, shouting and screaming I did, the smoke smell that lingered in my hair, and the crowd joining in to sing portions of popular ballads such as "After Hours," "Die For You," and "Call Out My Name," it’s safe to say that the massive success of the ticket sales for this tour speaks for itself. 

The "After Hours ‘Til Dawn" World Tour is a worldwide phenomenon and with two more shows on the U.S. and Canadian leg of the tour, I recommend anyone with the means to buy tickets—no matter where they are in the stadium—to go. 

When the tour was first announced two years ago, I repeated this mantra to myself: "I would make my money back eventually, but I would never be nineteen again seeing the Weeknd perform to a sold-out stadium."

It was an experience unlike any other that precedes anything he’s done before and makes me hopeful and excited to see what he does next. 

Edited by Claire van Doren, Logan Stanley and Kristen Apolline Castillo.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] and follow @anxieteandbread on Twitter.

Like  The State Press  on Facebook and follow  @statepress  on Twitter.

Analisa Valdez is a reporter with the Echo, focusing on covering the arts and entertainment world. Analisa has been apart of the State Press for two and a half years and is in her third year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. 

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The newly-announced date has been scheduled for Saturday, July 8 2023.

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Due to popular demand, The Weeknd has today announced an extra London Stadium date for his 2023 ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ Tour .

The new date has been scheduled for Saturday, July 8, 2023. Tickets for this additional date will go on sale starting Friday, December 2 at 12pm local time. Fans who purchased tickets for the 2022 ‘After Hours’ Arena Tour in Europe can register for presale access to the 2023 dates. All tickets and additional info will be available at The Weeknd’s official website .

Shop the best of The Weeknd’s discography on vinyl and more.

Tickets for the tour’s Colombia shows go on sale starting Saturday, December 3 at 9am local time. Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina Tickets go on sale for shows in Mexico (at 2pm local time), Brazil (at 10am local time) and Chile (at 11am local time) starting Thursday, December 8. On sale information will be announced soon for Argentina.

United Nations World Food Program Goodwill Ambassador Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye will again partner with the U.N. World Food Program to contribute funds from the second leg of the tour to the XO Humanitarian Fund, which supports the organization’s response to the unprecedented global hunger crisis. €1 from each ticket sold across Europe, £1 in the UK and the $1 equivalent in countries across Latin America will go to this important cause.

The fund raised money during the North American leg of the tour through ticket sales, proceeds from an exclusive tour t-shirt, and a $500,000 donation directly from The Weeknd. The Weeknd’s corporate partners, tour venues, World Food Program USA board of directors, and supporters also stepped up to contribute, as well as tour sponsor Binance, who contributed $2 million to the fund. The first grant of $2 million will be going to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to the most food-insecure regions of Ethiopia.

The completely sold out North American leg of the stadium tour was an incredible success breaking attendance records and grossing over $130 million dollars to date.

‘AFTER HOURS TIL DAWN TOUR’ 2023 UK TOUR DATES:

Sat Jun 10 – Manchester, UK – Etihad Stadium Fri Jul 7 – London, UK– London Stadium Sat Jul 8 – London, UK– London Stadium.

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The Weeknd review – spectacular voyage through post-apocalyptic pop

Etihad Stadium, Manchester With a fire-belching, robot-enhanced stage show and 33 songs dispatched in two hours, Abel Tesfaye turns his jaded libertine image inside out with good old-fashioned thrills

T he Weeknd’s 2023 stadium tour – postponed so many times that its title features not just the name of his most recent album, Dawn FM , but its 2020 predecessor, After Hours – is nothing if not spectacular.

The set is a vast metallic cityscape, filled with ruined landmarks – St Paul’s Cathedral, Toronto’s CN Tower and the Empire State Building among them – which belch out fire or shoot violet-coloured lasers above the crowd at strategic moments. But most of the action takes place on a runway that stretches nearly the full length of the Etihad Stadium’s pitch, which also belches out fire at strategic moments, and comes illuminated by dozens of spotlights that either point skywards or focus on the audience, illuminating huge sections of the stands, which are already illuminated by the crowd themselves, equipped with Coldplay-inspired flashing wristbands on arrival. The walkway is decorated with an immense moon dangling over its far end and an even more immense model of the Hajime Sorayama-designed robot featured in the video for 2011’s Echoes of Silence. The song doesn’t feature in the setlist, but no matter: the model slowly rotates, shoots coloured lights from its eyes, and provides a focal point around which dancers, clad in white robes and veils that look not unlike Tuareg tagelmusts, move in slow concentric circles.

All this is intended to represent “a journey through a cosmic cataclysm that has erupted and plagued the Earth”. Coupled with the speed at which the show’s tracks are dispatched – they are truncated and segue into each other, which enables the Weeknd to cram a staggering 33 songs into just under two hours – it’s a lot to take in, although apparently not enough to distract at least one fan’s attention from what’s happening in the Ataturk Stadium . He spends virtually the entire gig glued to coverage of the Champions League final on his mobile, blind to any cosmic cataclysm that doesn’t involve City failing to win the treble.

He obviously goes home happy, but it’s hard not to feel that he has missed out. The concept is pretty opaque – you wouldn’t have a clue what was supposed to be going on up there unless you’d read the advance publicity – but the relentlessness of its visual and aural bombardment is impressively beguiling.

On stage, Abel Tesfaye is a noticeably sweeter but less charismatic figure than you might expect. He spends the show’s first half performing with his face concealed by an MF Doom-style metallic mask, but proves surprisingly big on the kind of old-fashioned rabble-rousing that involves claiming that one half of the audience is his favourite, then changing his mind when the other half cheers louder and asking them if they’re ready to go home yet when the show is barely halfway through.

Mask or not, the air of darkly brooding mystery projected by his videos is punctured slightly by the sight of him enthusiastically playing air guitar, and at one point air keyboards, during solos. For a man who has spent the past 13 years inhabiting the persona of a creepily decadent but conflicted libertine, big on auto-erotic asphyxiation, punishing cocaine binges, abusive relationships and wilfully hollow materialism (The Morning’s chorus of “the money is the motive” is an impressively cynical line with which to provoke a heartfelt audience singalong), he cuts a surprisingly cuddly figure on stage.

But perhaps that’s a persona he is tiring of. Tesfaye has been making noises about this being his final tour, at least as the Weeknd. He has said stuff like that before, but if it is the end of an era, the show acts both as a perfect summation and an impressive way to bow out. The setlist is expansive enough to reach back to his earliest work – the Siouxsie and the Banshees-fuelled lurch of House of Balloons sounds fantastic – and even pay a passing visit to 2013’s Kiss Land , the relative flop that nearly derailed his career entirely. You’re struck by how varied his work has been: the woozy, weary balladry of Often is dramatically different to the neon-hued pop of Blinding Lights and Less Than Zero, the latter’s chorus sounding positively Abba-esque as it booms around the stadium.

But you’re also struck by how well it fits when crammed together cheek-by-jowl. The segues feel seamless, the shifts in temperature never jar – it’s all held together by a sharp melodic sense that means even the cloudiest tracks never feel as if they are they’re rambling. If this is a kind of retirement party for said persona, then it’s a euphorically celebratory one: even those punters whose enjoyment of the evening isn’t predicated on City’s performance in Turkey leave looking thrilled.

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The weeknd is taking his after hours til dawn tour global.

The singer also made a $5 million donation to the United Nations World Food Programme.

By DeMicia Inman

DeMicia Inman

Staff Writer, News

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The Weeknd has revealed dates for the global leg of his After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour. Set to kick off in 2023, the expansion covers Europe and Latin America with stops in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and more before wrapping up in Santiago, Chile. Additional dates are still being announced according to a press release.

Through a personal donation of $500,000, funds raised through ticket sales, proceeds from an exclusive tour t-shirt, tour sponsor Binance’s $2 million contribution and additional partnerships, the award-winning performer was able to donate millions to the cause he represents.

An initial $2 million grant will be going toward providing emergency food and nutrition assistance to the most food-insecure regions of Ethiopia, reaching more than 75,000 people. The Weeknd presented a check to World Food Program USA during a private event at his After Hours Til Dawn concert last weekend (Nov. 27) in Los Angeles.  

“We are deeply appreciative and humbled by The Weeknd’s steadfast support, as well as that of his loyal fans and partners,” expressed Barron Segar, World Food Program USA president and CEO. “Abel is an inspiration to us all, and through his efforts, thousands of families will have food security and hope for a better future.”   

The Weeknd And SZA May Finally Release Their “Die For You” Remix

The Weeknd will be joined by Kaytranada and Mike Dean on all European dates. The After Hours Till Dawn tour highlights music from The Weeknd’s 2020 album After Hours as well as his acclaimed 2022 release Dawn FM.

The “Starboy” singer will also continue his partnership with the U.N. World Food Programme to contribute funds from the worldwide trek to the XO Humanitarian Fund. €1 from each ticket sold across Europe, £1 in the UK, and the $1 equivalent in countries across Latin America will be donated to this important cause.

Additional ticketing information for The Weeknd’s global tour can be found on the official website. Take a listen to Dawn FM below.

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The Weeknd / Silver Girl / Sorayama statue 3D Model

Model from the weeknd 2023 tour. The creator of the image is Hajime Sorayama, a Japanese hyperrealist illustrator known for his hand-drawn photorealistic erotic images of women and effeminate gynoid robots.

Model information: • Optimized topology • Rigged • Compatible with Unreal Engine, Unity and similar engines.

I used this model in my project, check: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwoDyTXoeHO/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Buy this model on Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/a/32597921

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The Weeknd Reached Global Stadium Tour Status, at Last

We were there at the second stop on The Weeknd’s first global stadium tour in New Jersey. Here’s our review of the After Hours Til Dawn Tour.

Image via Getty/Theo Wargo

The Weeknd couldn’t help himself. Looking out over a sold-out crowd at MetLife Stadium, he tilted his head back and took in the moment as rain fell from the New Jersey sky.

“This might be the greatest night of my life,” he beamed.

It was the kind of over-the-top statement that often slips out of artists’ mouths in moments of euphoria—a nice gesture to make an audience feel special. But on Saturday night, you got the feeling he actually meant it. 

After all, The Weeknd’s first global stadium tour has been a long time coming. Not only did he have to endure multiple COVID-related delays and cancellations over the past two years, he’s been working towards these stadium shows for much of his career.

When his breakout mixtape trilogy first hit blogs back in 2011, most people would never have guessed that the brooding, mysterious singer who rarely showed his face would be selling out stadiums a decade later, but he’s been laying the groundwork for this tour ever since scaling his sound up to popstar status with smash records like “Can’t Feel My Face” in the mid-2010s. (Although, even Abel Tesfaye couldn’t have guessed his first stadium tour would be sponsored by a cryptocurrency company called Binance as part of the first-ever “crypto-powered world tour.” Times sure have changed since the Tumblr days.)

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In the days leading up to the tour, Abel promised fans that he would bring his “opera to a stadium near you,” and he happily indulged his taste for theatrics inside the massive stadium. On one side, he erected a dystopian cityscape. On the other, there was a large inflatable moon that apparently blocked the view of some attendees (but looked cool as hell for everyone else). And although Abel didn’t bring along any guests on tour, besides openers Mike Dean and Kaytranada, he was accompanied by over 20 dancers draped in flowing red cloaks, which added to the drama.

But first, a surprise. Before Abel took the stage, he debuted a teaser for the forthcoming HBO Max series The Idol , which he co-created alongside Sam Levinson and Reza Fahim. In case anyone at MetLife forgot he’s a global superstar now, what better way to remind them than by sprinkling in a little Hollywood glitz?

When the trailer ended, the cityscape turned to an apocalyptic red and The Weeknd finally appeared, donning a plastic mask as dramatic stage lights flashed around him. As soon as he sang the opening notes of “Alone Again,” though, it was clear he wouldn’t need to lean on the lavish set and theatrics to keep the stadium crowd entertained. His voice was more than enough. 

Abel has come a long way since his live debut at the Mod Club in Toronto back in 2011, when he stood very still in front of the crowd and figured out how to translate his recordings to the stage in real time. Since the beginning, his live vocals have had enough power to carry a stadium performance on their own, but now he’s learned to physically command a massive venue like MetLife, moving effortlessly up and down the elongated stage with his backup dancers. This was only the second stop on the tour, but he confidently navigated the set, avoiding any major hiccups. This might be his first stadium tour, but he is the same guy who just played the fucking Super Bowl, after all. He was ready for this.

As unlikely as The Weeknd’s rise has been—from shadowy, mysterious origins to international fame—he’s become a remarkably fitting superstar for this strange and chaotic period in human history. The tour’s dystopian imagery is reflective of the times, and he’s built up a catalog of songs that are very well-suited for the unsettling reality we find ourselves in. He’s uniquely positioned to offer moments of blissful escapism (“Less Than Zero” goes off in a stadium) before hitting you over the head with tragic anthems full of bleak undertones, and his career-spanning 29-song setlist beautifully oscillated between both energies. 

There will always be a place for shiny popstars who are completely removed from reality, but in 2022, a more nuanced, grounded star like Abel feels much more appropriate. This is a time that calls for artists who aren’t afraid of diving into the darker aspects of life—something he does better than anyone. One of the loudest moments during Sunday night’s show came when a stadium full of people passionately screamed along to the desperate pleas of his tortured anthem “Call Out My Name.” That’s the energy people are looking for right now.

Abel understands that he has different types of fans to please at every show (those who came for smash hits like “Can’t Feel My Face” and those who came for deeper cuts from the early years) and he was able to offer something to each. The bulk of the setlist was reserved for newer songs from After Hours and Dawn FM , as well as recent collaborations like “Hurricane” with Kanye west, but he also made sure to sneak in surprises like “Kiss Land” for the day-one supporters, shouting, “This is for the OG XO fans!” 

A decade into his career, Abel has turned into quite a showman. He chooses his words carefully onstage, but he usually says the right things at the right times. After a particularly impassioned singalong, he exclaimed, “You guys sing better than me!” And when it started raining in the middle of the show, he happily embraced it, telling the crowd, “Look how beautiful this rain is,” before teasing, “Y’all not trying to go home right now, are you?” He even handled the awkward state-straddling location of the stadium well, making sure to shout out both New Jersey and New York City throughout the show.

This stadium tour is the culmination of many smart decisions by Abel over the years. Some of it came by chance (he only decided to book stadiums after combining his After Hours and Dawn FM tours into one and increasing demand) but the larger career arc was well-calculated. After the success of those early mixtapes, the safe decision would have been to remain a mysterious figure at the peripherals of the pop landscape. But instead of limiting himself to the role of cult hero, he set his sights on worldwide stadium tours, and achieved exactly that. Getting a chance to perform his No. 1 hit “Starboy” for over 60,000 screaming fans is the payoff from a choice to expand his sound in the mid-2010s. 

It didn’t happen overnight, but now that he’s here, The Weeknd has a hell of a catalog for a stadium tour. Is there a better possible way to end a concert in 2022 than with four bulletproof hits like “Call Out My Name,” “The Morning,” “Save Your Tears,” and “Less Than Zero,” right before playing the biggest US Billboard Hot 100 single of all time (“Blinding Lights”)? Judging by the roar of the MetLife crowd, the answer is no.

No wonder he said it was the best night of his life.

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Angel Moroni statue returns to the top of the Salt Lake Temple

After a 4-year absence during the salt lake temple renovation, the iconic statue of the angel moroni returned to its place on a central spire 210 feet above ground..

By Tad Walch

SALT LAKE CITY — Dangling securely from a towering crane, the iconic Angel Moroni statue soared through the air Tuesday morning and settled back into its picturesque place atop the historic Salt Lake Temple — 210 feet above Temple Square.

Part of Salt Lake’s skyline for 128 years, the 12-foot, 5-inch statue was absent the past four years during intensive work on the temple’s foundation during a long, ongoing renovation by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After a brief presentation, Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé sounded an air horn. The late-winter morning sun glistened brilliantly on the statue’s new 14-carat gold leaf covering as hundreds of people watched below on Temple Square and many more looked on from the surrounding high-rise buildings.

At 10:52 a.m., one of the workers on the spire signaled to those below that the statue was in place.

“Placing the angel Moroni statue at the top of the east central tower spire of the temple is a significant step in this historic project,” Bishop Caussé said.

“There’s still much more to be accomplished in renovating the temple,” he said. “This placement of the angel Moroni statue is one of the many milestones over the next few years that will bring us closer to rededicating the Lord’s house and resuming its sacred central purpose, serving as a place to make holy promises, or covenants, with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and to unite families for eternity.”

Now the angel is back in restored, glimmering-gold glory, confidently holding the trumpet knocked from his right hand by a January 2020 earthquake . The quake accelerated plans to remove the statue for the renovation, and once aftershocks subsided, workers removed the statue and the capstone on which it stands on May 18, 2020.

The statue was placed in storage and eventually refreshed. Its return comes in time to once more watch over the tens of thousands of people who will attend the church’s 194th Annual General Conference this weekend across the street from the temple at the Conference Center.

Restorationists used its temporary absence to improve the way the horn is attached so that it will not fall again. Workers also removed a small amount of rust from the metal armature inside the statue. The metal is covered by thin-gauge copper and topped with gold leaf.

“The statue is in incredible condition,” said Emily Utt, a Church Historic Sites curator.

Cyrus Dallin, the statue’s famed sculptor, completed the piece in 1892. On April 2 of that year, Elder Marriner W. Merrill, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, saw it and thought it should be called Moroni, Utt said.

Another member of the Twelve, Elder Wilford Woodruff, saw a vision of the Salt Lake Temple before the Latter-day Saints reached the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, said one of his descendants, Mark Woodruff, executive secretary to church President Russell M. Nelson.

Elder Woodruff was present when Brigham Young selected the Salt Lake Temple’s location in 1847 by making a divot in the ground with his cane . As the church’s fourth president, he commissioned Dallin to create the angel statue, and he laid the capstone and statue in place on the temple by pressing a button that started an electric motor that moved it into position as 40,000 people watched on April 6, 1892.

President Woodruff then dedicated the temple exactly one year later.

Mark Woodruff said President Woodruff did all he could to continue the vision of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young for building temples because Latter-day Saint temples are the sacred places where families can be sealed to their ancestors.

Tuesday’s presentation included a display of a painting of Presidents Young and Woodruff recording in writing the temple endowment ceremony first introduced by Joseph Smith in the Red Brick Store in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois.

“The glory of the whole matter,” President Woodruff said, “is that when we get through, we are going to have our families with us … in the morning of the Resurrection, in the family organization of the celestial world, to dwell forever and forever.”

Brigham Young established the temple as the pioneers’ center of daily life and worship, said Elder Larry Y. Wilson, one of President Young’s descendants and an emeritus General Authority Seventy.

“By orienting the city and daily life around the house of the Lord, Brigham Young established the legacy that we carry forth today as we center our lives on the Savior and the covenants we make in his holy house,” Elder Wilson said.

The statue and the capstone together weigh 5,000 pounds.

One of the sculptor’s relatives, Chris Dallin, watched Tuesday with his wife, Candice, 132 years after Cyrus Dallin’s angel statue was placed on the temple.

Dallin was not a member of the church, but his mother was, and after he completed the sculpture, he said, “Sculpting the angel brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did. It seems to me that I came to know what it means to commune with angels in heaven.”

“Cyrus Dallin was here 132 years ago,” said Dan Johnson, a member of the board of directors of the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum in Arlington, Massachusetts. “Now we have the family and the museum here.”

Dallin also sculpted iconic statues of Massasoit and Paul Revere.

“His work is more famous than he ever was. He would have been pleased to be here today, and I feel like I get that opportunity to represent him today,” Chris Dallin said.

He learned something about the statue during its absence from the temple. Cyrus Dallin followed the process for the Statue of Liberty, for which the sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, hired Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel to build a wrought-iron inner structure for the copper hammered and molded by Bartholdi.

“I thought that the angel was cast and the angel was not. It is built more in the style of the Statue of Liberty, through copper. So it’s much wider in fashion than a cast bronze statue might be,” Chris Dallin said.

A box inside the capstone contained multiple items, including a photo of the temple; a Bible, a Book of Mormon and other books; and images of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith.

More than 128 years later, President Russell M. Nelson and his counselors, Presidents Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring, watched a conservator carefully remove items from the south compartment of the capstone.

What is the purpose of the Angel Moroni?

The statue of Moroni is a figure of respect rather than worship because of the role that he played in the Restoration. By holding the trumpet to his mouth, Moroni symbolizes the spreading of the gospel (see Matthew 24:31 ).

Angel Moroni statues on Latter-day Saints temples also act as lightning rods , though that is rare on the Salt Lake Temple because it is not the tallest object in Salt Lake City.

The scriptures state that the Savior will come from the east at the Second Coming (see Matthew 24:27 ). Whenever possible, the angel Moroni figure is placed facing eastward.

The original Nauvoo Temple was the first temple to have an angel placed on the top. This angel was different from today’s version because it was designed as a weathervane. The angel appeared horizontally with a horn pressed to his lips and a book in his hand.

What does the Angel Moroni statue represent?

Moroni is ancient American prophet who wrote the final book in the Book of Mormon, then sealed up the records and buried them. Joseph Smith reported that Moroni appeared to him several times as an angel to instruct him and eventually to provide the records to him and retrieve them after they were translated.

Church members believe Moroni’s visitation was vital to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The angel atop the temple reminds us that the heavens are open, and we can return to him,” Utt said Tuesday.

Scriptures also say Jesus Christ will appear in the east at his Second Coming , and the angel Moroni figure is generally placed facing eastward when possible. The Nauvoo Illinois Temple and its Angel Moroni statue face west looking across the Mississippi River toward the Salt Lake Temple as a symbol of the Latter-day Saint exodus.

Not all Latter-day Saint temples have an Angel Moroni statue.

The Salt Lake Temple was decommissioned in January 2020. Renovation is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

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Inside Cambodia’s quest to reclaim its looted treasures from California museums

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The elderly woman was weaving baskets at home when a group of strangers arrived at her front gate, requesting her help on a national mission.

They spent the next two hours that January afternoon asking 74-year-old So Nin about growing up amid the ruins of the Angkor kingdom and her memories of the ancient monuments built by the Khmer empire before its collapse in the 15th century.

Four of the visitors returned a few weeks later, carrying books, binders and a laptop filled with photographs of artifacts from that era, many of which they believed to have been stolen and sold overseas.

They flipped through photographs — a Buddha, a stoic guardian, a three-eyed goddess — hoping So might recognize them. But she kept shaking her head no.

Then one gave her pause: a stone slab featuring the Hindu god Vishnu reclining against a giant snake, which today is on display in Pasadena as part of the Asian art collection at the Norton Simon Museum .

Her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned forward to contemplate the carving.

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“Can you show us where you saw it?” asked one of the visitors.

The site was just a few miles away at the Ta Keo temple, but she hadn’t been there in more than 50 years. They agreed to visit it together the next morning.

The sleuths — a 55-year-old American attorney named Bradley J. Gordon and three Cambodian women working for him — are at the helm of a broadening expedition to recover thousands of artifacts that disappeared from the country’s temples during a civil war, genocide and decades of turmoil that followed.

The last time such artifacts were approved for export was during World War II, when Cambodia was occupied by Japanese forces. The government says any other objects outside Cambodia had been looted.

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The wholesale plunder started in the late-1960s, as soldiers and local gangs combed through the nation’s temples for statues, carvings and other objects of cultural significance to smuggle across the border to Thailand. From there, the objects were sold to art brokers, private collectors and the world’s largest museums in what the country regards as the biggest art heist in history.

Now Cambodia is accelerating its efforts to bring back the sacred artifacts.

“Our cultural heritage should be owned by us,” said Huot Samnang, director of antiquities at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. “They are our spiritual ancestors, so they should come home.”

The country scored a major victory in December, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City agreed to return 14 pieces from its collection.

At a Long Beach pro-democracy rally, Cambodians grapple with their country’s political past and future

Survivors of the Khmer Rouge are some of the most vocal opponents to the Cambodian People’s Party that has ruled the country for almost 40 years.

But there is much more work to be done. Working for the Culture Ministry, Gordon and his team have been scouring the sanctuaries and neighboring villages for evidence that hundreds of antiquities now on display in U.S. museums had left the country illegally .

The carving that caught So’s attention is one of 40 objects of interest at the Norton Simon . The team is also investigating 48 artifacts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and 90 in other California institutions, including 81 at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

“This is a new chapter of our approach,” Gordon said.

As planned, So and the investigators climbed into a minivan for the 10-minute drive to Ta Keo, which was built for a boy king in the 10th century and abandoned after a lightning strike that was deemed an ill omen.

The last time So was there, the temple was surrounded by jungle foliage, and the stones were a glossy black.

Since then, most of the trees had been cleared. The crumbling stones had faded to brown and gray. The Vishnu carving that had impressed her as a young woman was missing from its spot above the temple entrance.

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“It was beautiful,” she said. “I loved it.”

So’s recollection alone was not enough to request the return of the artifact from the Norton Simon.

But if villagers can identify where a sculpture or object once stood, Cambodia can conduct an excavation to look for physical proof of looting — a fragment or plinth or limb left behind like a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

Tracking down each artifact is a demanding task. Some were unknown to most of the country until they showed up in photos of art collections overseas. Cambodia’s own written records of the spiritual objects that once adorned its 4,000 sacred temples disappeared during the war .

Were there any other elderly villagers who might corroborate So’s account?

“They’re all dead,” she told the researchers.

The quest to retrieve the country’s lost antiquities began with two mythical warriors locked in combat.

The stone characters from the ancient Hindu epic of Mahabharata had once stood in a sanctuary in the 10th century temple complex of Koh Ker, surrounded by jungle in northern Cambodia. But by the time Simon Warrack, a British stonemason with a fascination for ancient ruins, stumbled upon the scene in 2007, all that remained of them were the four feet, still attached to pedestals.

Based on the unique wide-set positioning of the feet and a dangling strip of carved cloth, Warrack traced one of the missing figures — the divine fighter Bhima — to the Norton Simon, which had purchased it from a New York art dealer in 1976. Warrack sent his findings to Cambodian authorities, but the government was hesitant to act on his research alone.

“The whole idea of restitution was a gray area — who owned things and who had stolen things, and why things were where they were,” he said. “People stepped very carefully at the beginning, because they didn’t want to make things worse.”

In 2011, a French archaeologist identified the other missing warrior as Duryodhana — a statue Sotheby’s had planned to auction off for at least $2 million until Cambodia alleged it was stolen and asked the U.S. government for help getting it back.

That was when Gordon got involved in tracking down Cambodia’s lost treasures .

The Connecticut native and Harvard Law graduate had run a Bangkok art gallery and two vegetarian restaurants in Cambodia before opening a law practice there. When he read about Cambodia’s difficulties getting back the Duryodhana, he offered his help and got a job as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The Duryodhana was really the beginning of the restitution renaissance,” Gordon said. “At that point, we were a small part of the story.”

For the last six months of 2012, Gordon searched Koh Ker for witnesses who might remember the disputed sandstone statue, conducting more than 100 interviews to uncover the local smuggling network responsible for the theft.

After a lengthy court battle, Sotheby’s agreed to return the Duryodhana. Taking a cue, the Norton Simon agreed to give back the Bhima .

In June of 2014, both sculptures — along with another god from the scene, Balarama, that was recovered from Christie’s auction house — were unloaded at the airport in Phnom Pehn, decorated with flowers and driven through the streets of the capital on the flatbed of a truck under “welcome home” banners.

Warrack, who attended the homecoming, explained its significance for Cambodians : “They lost 20% of the population during the genocide. None of those people are coming back. They also lost thousands of statues and sculptures. Those can come back.”

One of the people Gordon interviewed in the Duryodhana case was a former Khmer Rouge foot soldier named Toek Tik, who confessed to stealing hundreds of sacred objects and said he wanted to repent by helping retrieve them.

Soon he would become a key informant for the Cambodian government, under the code name Lion.

In 2018, after the Cambodian government made Gordon a legal advisor on repatriation, the two men began meeting frequently, often traveling to temples where Lion pointed out the former locations of artifacts he had looted.

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In the summer of 2021, the meetings took on a greater urgency: Lion was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“He made this decision to just transfer everything he had in his mind to us,” said Gordon, recounting how he and Lion would meet for days on end in Gordon’s apartment in Siem Reap.

Before his death later that year, Lion was able to point authorities to dozens of looted artifacts he recognized from museum catalogs and other photographs.

Many of those pieces passed through another known linchpin in the illicit antiquities trade , the British art dealer Douglas Latchford.

Cambodia’s looted treasures

April 25, 2012

For decades, Latchford had enjoyed a reputation as a dedicated patron and scholar of Cambodian art, but he came under scrutiny by U.S. federal prosecutors for his role in supplying the Duryodhana statue.

In 2019, he was indicted for trafficking looted objects and falsifying documents to cover their tracks. He died before trial the following year.

His personal collection of antiquities, valued at more than $50 million, was passed to his daughter, who agreed to give it back to Cambodia. In 2021, the Denver Art Museum returned four other pieces linked to Latchford.

Netscape founder Jim Clark agreed to send back 35 artifacts worth more than $35 million, and the family of pipeline billionaire George Lindemann returned 33 items worth $20 million.

The returns have united most of the supporting cast of the stone showdown between Duryodhana and Bhima, which are now on display at the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

Gordon is still seeking the ninth and final figure from the tableau, a statue of the Hindu deity Krishna.

“This whole project means so much to the Cambodians in terms of healing, what you do after war and how do you recover,” he said. “Now that I’ve spent so much of my life on this, it just makes sense to continue.”

Between visits with So, Gordon stopped by a two-story house along the Siem Reap River.

Accompanying him were three of his researchers, who didn’t want their names published because of the sensitivity of cases they are investigating. In the field, they go by code names: Tida, or beautiful woman; Kanha, which means September; and Sralao, a reference to the slender trees that grow around the temples.

They had come to the Angkor research center of the French School of the Far East to talk with one of its experts, Sophie Biard, and show her the photograph of the Vishnu that So had pinpointed.

“The style is not accurate for Ta Keo,” Biard said. “It’s possible it’s just the same iconography.”

Gordon and his researchers digested the information: The carving So had remembered from the temple probably wasn’t the piece in Pasadena. Vishnu depictions were common across Cambodia .

Biard promised to investigate further, and a few days later, she messaged Gordon with some surprising news.

While combing through the organization’s archives, she had discovered a photograph taken in 1969 at Preah Vihear , a temple complex near the borders of Thailand and Laos. It was a carving that looked identical to the one at the Norton Simon.

So had inadvertently led Gordon and his team to photographic evidence that the piece they were looking for had been in Cambodia long after the end of the legal export market.

“This job takes tremendous patience,” Gordon said. “After five or six times, you’ll hit something.”

With the archival photograph as proof, the piece has become a priority in Cambodia’s repatriation efforts. In March, Gordon requested all provenance documents — the recorded ownership history of a piece of art — for Cambodian objects at the Norton Simon and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Leslie Denk, Norton Simon’s vice president of external affairs, said the museum is researching the ownership histories of its Southeast Asian art and plans to make the information available online next year.

She directed The Times to a 2010 book on the Norton Simon collection, which said the museum had purchased the Vishnu carving in 1975 for $4,000. The seller: Latchford, the disgraced dealer who died before his trafficking trial could begin.

A spokesperson for LACMA said the museum is reviewing Gordon’s inquiry. The museum declined to provide provenance documents to The Times.

A spokesperson for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco said the institution has been working with Cambodia to identify art that may have been stolen .

The growing scrutiny over looted objects worldwide has broadened the debate on ownership from a purely legal quandary into a moral one.

“It’s become clear over the last 15 or 20 or 25 years that some dealers are extraordinarily scrupulous, and some dealers are not,” said Chase Robinson, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, which in 2022 adopted a new ethics policy under which it will repatriate stolen objects. “The standards have really changed.”

Gordon said he’s hoping that will lead to more cooperation from art institutions to actively identify stolen objects in their collections and lower the burden of proof placed on Cambodia.

Two Thai artifacts in a San Francisco museum were stolen. Now, they’re on their way home

Two architectural lintels have been part of the Asian Art Museum’s collection in San Francisco since the 1960s. Now they are being returned to their homeland.

March 26, 2021

“We don’t want to have to show evidence for every single statue in order to get it back,” Gordon said. “Our message to the museums is that this is hard work. We need to do a lot of interviews. But in the meantime, they should help us.”

As more cultural artifacts have arrived back in Cambodia, the Ministry of Culture has debated what to do with them. Space is running out, with more than 33,000 in storage or on display at museums around the country.

Gordon said the country plans to expand its museums and train its first curators. Some Cambodians are also hopeful that spiritually significant figures can eventually be returned to the temples they once occupied.

But while the recent repatriations have stymied the black market, looters are still active, Gordon said. That has prevented Gordon and his team from divulging too much information publicly.

Entertainment & Arts

Commentary: Two L.A. museums hold art looted during an African massacre a century ago

LACMA and UCLA’s Fowler Museum ponder repatriation of so-called Benin bronzes stolen during an 1897 slaughter by British colonists.

May 3, 2021

At each new site, the team approaches the guards and guides to ask about the nearest village, looking for residents in their 70s and 80s who may remember seeing statues before they were looted. Some give vague answers, while others shrug before offering one name. Not many of that generation are left.

With locals at their sides, Gordon and his team page through the photographs, hoping to find another source as open and knowledgeable as Lion.

“We need to find the people who dug stuff up, put it on trucks and took it out,” Gordon said. “We just haven’t broken the code yet.”

On the day So visited the Ta Keo temple with Gordon and his researchers, she told them that ancient statues appear in her dreams. Her memories are so vivid that when she closes her eyes, she can see the gods of her childhood.

Still, she mourns the loss of the Vishnu carving.

“I can’t believe someone would take it,” she said.

But, it turned out, whoever had carried it away all those years ago likely had more benevolent motives than a thief .

During the civil war, workers from the Ministry of Culture and the French School of the Far East took hundreds of pieces from local temples and stashed them away nearby at the Angkor conservatory. Behind barbed wire and watchtowers, the ancient treasures remained there for decades, despite a few armed break-ins over the years.

The Vishnu was almost certainly one of them and now appears to be on display at the Angkor National Museum. Biard told Gordon that it perfectly matched So’s description and that documents said it was taken from the Ta Keo temple.

But So wasn’t entirely certain when one of Gordon’s researchers recently stopped by her house with a photograph of the carving.

The team plans to take her to the museum — just a 20-minute drive from where she lives — to see the Vishnu in person and confirm whether it is indeed the one she remembers from all those decades ago.

More to Read

California legislators push law change after ruling against family in Nazi looted art case

March 28, 2024

In a highly unusual move, UCLA Fowler Museum is initiating returns of looted African works

Feb. 5, 2024

Penn Museum buries the bones of 19 Black Philadelphians, causing dispute with community

Feb. 3, 2024

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Stephanie Yang is a China correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Previously she was a reporter with the Wall Street Journal in New York, Beijing and Taipei, covering a broad range of topics including financial markets, tech companies, New York City and the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Born and raised in Iowa, she graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

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The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024

T he Weeknd has a net worth of $300 million in 2024. The Weeknd is one of the most famous musical artists of the past decade. He has released several hit singles, from “Can’t Feel My Face” to “Blinding Lights”. Let’s look at The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024.

What is The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024?: $300 million (estimate)

The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024 is $ 300 million. This is according to numerous reputable sources, including Celebrity Net Worth . No wonder he wants an upgrade from his $22.5 million penthouse in Los Angeles .

The Weeknd (real name, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) was born and raised in Toronto.

The Weeknd begins music career

He started his music career in 2009, as he uploaded music to YouTube anonymously. Tesfaye then made three songs initially with the help of producer Jeremy Rose, uploaded under the username “xoxxxoooxo”. The songs, namely “What You Need”, “Loft Music” and “The Morning”, drew media attention and even caught the ear of fellow Canadian hip-hop artist Drake. At the time, he was still working at American Apparel.

He soon adopted the moniker “The Weeknd”, excluding the letter e to avoid copyright issues with the pop rock band “The Weekend”.

The Weeknd starts the XO record label

He founded the XO record label in 2011, releasing his first mixtape House of Balloons. Thursday and Echos of Silence were also both released in 2011. He received several nominations for the Polaris Music Prize.

The Weeknd also collaborated with Drake this year, opening for him in some concerts and appearing at the OVO Festival.  Moreover, he contributed to four songs on Drake’s Take Care.

The Weeknd goes on his first international tour

Tesfaye went on his first international tour the following year, including Coachella and the Wireless Festival in the United Kingdom. He also signed with Republic Records that year, with his XO record label becoming a subsidiary.

He also released Triligy this year, a mixture of remixed and remastered versions of his 2011 songs. It debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200.

In 2013, he had a hand in another hit, “Elastic Heart” alongside Sia and Diplo. He also collaborated with Ariana Grande to make “Love Me Harder”. Tesfaye produced two more hits, “Often” and “Earned It”, earning him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

“Earned It”, part of the Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) soundtrack, won Best R&B Performance at the Grammys.

The Weeknd released several hits in 2015

Speaking of 2015, it would be an even bigger year for The Weeknd, as he would blow up even more with hit after hit after hit. The first of the year was the second single from Beauty Behind the Madness, entitled “The Hills”; it became Tesfaye’s first number-one single and first diamond-certified record. This would help to add to The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024.

Next was “Can’t Feel My Face” which he released via performance at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

Finally, he released Beauty Behind the Madness in August 2015. The studio album went on to be certified double platinum in the U.S. and went on to sell 1.5 million copies worldwide. Beauty Bhind the Madness was the most streamed album that year, with over 60 million.

The album was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the Grammy Awards.

Other notable projects released soon, including a feature in Future’s “Low Life” and Kanye West’s “FML”, a single in his album The Life of Pablo.

The Weeknd releases Starboy

In 2016, Tesfaye announced his next studio album entitled Starboy, releasing the title track in the same month “Starboy” debuted at No. 40 and ended up being his third No. 1 single. The song is now certified 8x platinum.

Other hits from the album include “I Feel It Coming” and “Die for You”, among others. Starboy debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and is a certified triple platinum. Like its predecessor, it also won Best Urban Contemporary Album.

The Weeknd releases My Dear Melancholy

Tesfaye would then release an EP in 2018 titled My Dear Melancholy, which debuted yet again at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Before this, he contributed to another Future project “Coming Out Strong”, as well as a feature in the Black Panther (2018) soundtrack alongside Kendrick Lamar in “Pray for Me”.

Next, he would release another hit in “Blinding Lights”, which he notably teased in a Mercedez-Benz commercial. The song also peaked at number 1.

The Weeknd’s After Hours became the most-streamed R&B album

In 2020, he would release After Hours, which marked The Weeknd’s fourth consecutive No. 1 album. It also became the most streamed R&B album, beating Tesfaye’s Starboy. Notable hits from the album include its title track and “Save Your Tears”.

Tesfaye then performed in the 2021 Super Bowl Halftime Show , which earned three Emmy nominations.

Dawn FM, his fifth and most recent studio album, was released in January 2022. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and features such singles as “Sacrifice”, and “Moth to a Flame” ft. Swedish House Mafia, and “Out of Time”.

The Weeknd was named the world’s most popular artist

In March 2023, Guinness World Records certified The Weeknd as the most popular artist in the world. This was based on streaming data from Spotify and social media.

Only a couple of months later, Tesfaye announced his new album would be the last he would release under The Weeknd. He plans to continue to make music, just not as The Weeknd.

The Weeknd also starred in The Idol , a show on HBO that created controversy with its adult content. HBO canceled the show after five episodes.

The Weeknd is truly one of the most prolific artists of the 2010s. Throughout his career, he has accumulated 12.5 million certified album units and 83 million digital units in the US alone. He makes more or less $3 million monthly and is now worth about $300 million.

Were you stunned at all at The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024?

The post The Weeknd’s net worth in 2024 appeared first on ClutchPoints .

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