On Sept. He opened his mouth to sing the next line, and for one of the first times in his life, his source of power β his unmistakable, one-in-a-million voice β was gone. But I was always able to fight through it. In a halting voice, he explained the situation to the SoFi audience, apologized, offered refunds and promised a rescheduled date. So pressure is nothing new to him. And needless to say, he has resources.
Exhaustion and stress, he says, were factors. Maybe it was that year, but maybe it was my whole life: survival, school, family, friendships, relationships, making it in the music industry.
You know, delusion helps! And in that moment, reality hit: Everything can change after this moment. The make-up concerts were rapturously received, and the triumphant SoFi dates even became a concert film. The Weeknd continued the tour across Europe in and Australia last fall, and will conclude it with another global trek later this year. The album, out Jan. How could it not be? Was that a problem before? Bringing that vision into a cohesive album is challenge enough, but making it into a coherent film is no small endeavor.
And I was blown away by how well he responds to direction as an actor: There would be days where I was ready to walk away from a scene, thinking we got it, and he would ask for another take and push the scene to a new level. The Weeknd gushes when talking about his co-stars, Ortega and Keoghan. It was so great getting to know him and help bring his vision to life. What makes him different from Jenna is that his talent is so raw, it just comes so naturally to him. It also features several major special guests, most of whom the Weeknd declined to make public just yet.
But to connect it with the album, I felt like it was the only way to close the chapter. The son of Ethiopian immigrants, he was raised in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough by his mother and grandmother. It definitely saved my life. Two more mixtapes followed in rapid succession, and by the end of the year, he had signed a major deal with Republic Records, which remains his label.
