Delivering a TV Debut for his track ‘Open Hearts’ on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Weeknd followed up swift on the release of his latest album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. The performance, exquisitely choreographed and crafted by merging art styles like claymation with live action, is reminiscent of The Weeknd’s claim of it being the last Weeknd project — at least thematically.
just realized this is the last time i can ever listen to an album by the weeknd for the first time again pic.twitter.com/BvdbX1Q1cJ
— ash ! (@excusemeilu) January 31, 2025
The artist seems to have taken a slow departure from his persona as The Weeknd, which becomes apparent in the latter half of his performance on Kimmel, with his claymation character being sucked into the ground. The ‘Stranger Things’ like world building employed in the video, too, denotes The Weeknd stepping into an alternate world — and consequently, a different version of himself.
THE WEEKND 🐐
2011 — 2025#HURRYUPTOMORROW pic.twitter.com/hZIzUmYOrR
— NFR Podcast (@nfr_podcast) January 31, 2025
Fans on the internet were quick to take to excitement brought forth by the statement this performance and celebrate the transition of The Weeknd to Abel himself. So far, the album has had rave reviews from core Weeknd fans — some even claiming that only he could drop an AOTY contender so early into the new year.
Opened the album sampling ‘Thriller’ and ended it by transitioning the last song into the very first song from his first album
How the FCK is someone gonna top The Weeknd this year pic.twitter.com/uCLVhFhoSr
— Wost🐰 (@mosthiphop) January 31, 2025
Well, the way we saw him cloaked up (literally) in the mystery of his Kimmel set, it seems likely that we are in for more surprises within the post-release run of the album. Check out the video for yourself below!
