The Weeknd teams up with Madonna and Playboi Carti for ‘Popular’

2 June, 2023

Madonna, The Weeknd and Playboi Carti

The Weeknd has released new single ‘Popular’ – featuring Madonna and Playboi Carti. Check it out below.

The new track is set to appear on the highly-anticipated HBO series, The Idol — which sees both The Weeknd (going by his birth name Abel Tesfaye) and Lily-Rose Depp in the lead roles.

Featuring guest cameos from Playboi Carti and Madonna, ‘Popular’ is the second song that The Weeknd has released ahead of the upcoming drama. The first was his track ‘Double Fantasy’, which arrived back in April and saw the singer-songwriter team up with Future.

Both songs are set to appear in the soundtrack album for the show, ‘The Idol Vol. 1’, which will be released at the end of the month (June 30). Check out the latest track below, featuring a music video that shows both Tesfaye and Depp at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

While the song has only been released today (June 2), ‘Popular’ first caught the attention of fans last month, when a snippet of the song played during the 2023 edition of the prestigious film festival, and quickly began to circulate on social media.

Earlier this week, The Weeknd also hinted that the song was set to arrive soon on social media — uploading a screenshot of himself and track collaborator Playboi Carti to his Instagram Stories.

The Idol will debut this Sunday (June 4), and follows the plot of a vulnerable pop megastar (played by Depp) and her relationship with controversial self-help guru (Tesfaye).

Last month, the show made history by becoming the first series to debut at the Cannes Film Festival. Taking place last Monday (May 22), attendees were shown the first two episodes of the forthcoming six-episode series.

Made by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, in May it was reported that the idea for the series came from The Weeknd, who pitched the idea to Levinson by suggesting that he could “start a cult” if he wanted to.

“Abel came to us with a pitch. He said something that I’ll always remember: ‘If I wanted to start a cult, I could,’” Levinson recalled to W Magazine. “What he meant is that his fans were so loyal and devoted that they would follow him anywhere. That was the germ of the idea for The Idol: what happens when a pop star falls for the wrong guy and no one speaks up.”

In other The Idol news, back in April 2022, it was announced that the show was getting a rehaul as Tesfaye was unhappy with the show’s creative direction — which at the time reportedly focused too much on “the female perspective” of Depp’s character, rather than his own.

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