Here’s what The Weeknd played at his special São Paulo concert
The Weeknd performed in São Paulo last night for a “one-night-only” live-streamed concert. Check out everything he played below.
The one-off gig took place at the Estádio MorumBIS venue in São Paulo on Saturday, September 7. It follows from the singer – real name Abel Tesfaye – embarking on his ‘After Hours Til Dawn Tour’ over the past two years, and marked the beginning of a new era of music.
Prior to the gig, the singer revealed it would differ from his previous stage shows and that it would include a mixed-up setlist and “never-before-seen production”. Tesfaye also joined forces with the UN World Food Programme for the concert, donating $1 (77p) from every ticket sold to the XO Humanitarian Fund in a bid to end the global hunger crisis.
With an audience of around 75,000 in the arena and millions tuned into the livestream, the colossal gig saw The Weeknd sail through a setlist of his biggest hits, while also debuting eight new songs from his upcoming album ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’.
It follows months of the artist teasing new music, beginning when he suggested that the upcoming third chapter to his ongoing ‘After Hours’ and ‘Dawn FM’ was on the way in a series of social media posts in January. He’s since shared snippets of new tracks through the year, and finally revealed the album title, ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’, earlier this week.
Beckoning in the new era, The Weeknd debuted two new tracks at the start of the show. Though he didn’t reveal song titles, fans online have coined them ‘Fades to Black /Run Away’ and ‘Wake Me Up’.
He then performed a string of hits from his 2020 album ‘After Hours’, including the title track, ‘Too Late’ and ‘Escape from LA’, before introducing special guest Playboi Carti to play ‘FE!N’ (a Travis Scott cover), ‘Until I Bleed Out’, and ‘TIMELESS’.
Brazillian artist Anitta also joined to perform another unreleased track, thought to be called ‘São Paulo’. Other unreleased tracks debuted were ‘Wake Me Up’, ‘Take Me Back to LA’, ‘Dancing in the Flames’, ‘Let’s End It All’, ‘Run Away’ and the album’s presumed title track ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’, which he departed on.
Elsewhere, he played his biggest hits including ‘Save Your Tears’, ‘Less Than Zero’ and ‘Blinding Lights’, which recently became the first song in history to reach 4billion streams on Spotify, and is now Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time.
Check out the full setlist, and watch the entire performance, below.
The Weeknd’s São Paulo setlist was:
‘The Crowd’
‘Fades to Black / Run Away’
(unreleased song)
‘Wake Me Up’
(unreleased song)
‘After Hours’
‘Too Late’
‘Take My Breath’
‘Sacrifice
(Swedish House Mafia remix)
‘How Do I Make You Love Me?
‘Escape from LA’
‘Take Me Back to LA
(unreleased song)
‘Dancing in the Flames
(unreleased song)
‘Until I Bleed Out’
‘FE!N
(Travis Scott cover with Playboi Carti)
‘Until I Bleed Out’
(with Playboi Carti)
‘TIMELESS’
(Playboi Carti cover with Playboi Carti)
‘São Paulo
(with Anitta, unreleased song)
‘Heartless’
‘Repeat After Me’ (Interlude)
‘Let’s End It All’
(unreleased song)
‘Faith’
‘Alone Again’
‘Run Away’
(unreleased song)
‘Out of Time’
‘Is There Someone Else?’
‘Hardest to Love’
‘Scared to Live’
‘Save Your Tears’
‘Less Than Zero’
‘Blinding Lights’
‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’
(unreleased song)
The final addition to the trilogy will mark the first album from The Weeknd since 2022’s ‘Dawn FM’. In a four-star review, NME wrote: “‘Dawn FM’ feels like the first steps on a journey for The Weeknd to find peace with himself; perhaps next time we hear from him, he’ll be fully embracing the light of day.”
In other news, it was reported earlier this year that The Weeknd’s huge hit single ‘Blinding Lights’ had become the first song in history to reach 4billion streams on Spotify. Named Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time, the track featured on his ‘After Hours’ album, which was released at the end of 2019.
The post Here’s what The Weeknd played at his special São Paulo concert appeared first on NME.
Laura Molloy
NME
