🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔 pic.twitter.com/obhqtnOCrI
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) June 23, 2022
The Weeknd’s team reveals in an exclusive interview with Variety that R&B/soul singer Snoh Aalegra, Canadian electronic musician Kaytranada, and top DJ/producer Mike Dean playing a “improv synth set” will serve as the opening acts for his world stadium tour, which kicks off in his hometown of Toronto next Friday.
The complete 19 dates, along with a list of the acts performing in which cities, are listed below.
Although “the phone was ringing” with calls from interested parties, according to Omar Al-joulani, Live Nation’s president of touring and a Toronto native who has worked with the Weeknd since 2014, the tour’s original opener, Doja Cat, withdrew last month to undergo throat surgery.
The choices reflect the artist’s long-standing tradition of having up-and-coming acts open his tours, even one as massive as the stadium show that will work its way across North America.
According to Al-Joulani, Travis Scott, Halsey, Jhene Aiko, Schoolboy Q, Lil Uzi Vert, Bryson Tiller, and Banks are just a few of the artists he has performed on stage with. Unusually, The Weeknd has rarely served as the opening act: He continues, “Early on, he opened for Justin Timberlake in New York and Florence and the Machine at the Hollywood Bowl, but I think that’s it.
According to his longtime creative director La Mar Taylor, “Abel has achieved worldwide stardom—stadium status, so it’s the most obvious development for him to follow: The ideas and sonics were designed for venues of this size.” The programme, which is now known as “After Hours til Dawn,” has had a complete makeover from its initial 2020 schedule, which was three months away from debuting when the pandemic occurred. “Only around 5% of the initial ‘After Hours’ output is left for this tour. When we decided to move from arenas to stadiums, we truly went back to the drawing board.
They had an idea of how much bigger they could go thanks to the Super Bowl.
He goes on to say, “We absolutely took inspiration from the Super Bowl performance—and enlarged it. “That performance had so many limitations and limits that we were unable to fully achieve our original plans. Today, we can.
Stadiums provide The Weeknd with a much larger stage on which to project the storylines for the thematically connected albums.
It is unknown whether the TV series will be reflected in the show, but it will find an even bigger outlet with the upcoming HBO series “The Idol,” which he co-wrote and stars in.
The whole display is conceptual, according to Taylor. “There is a linear plot between ‘After Hours’ and ‘Dawn FM,’ and I believe that viewers will have their own interpretations of the show after seeing it. That, to us, is the whole idea.
Taylor didn’t specify how much older material will be performed, but he did suggest that it would be a significant portion of the event.
A mixtape-style approach to the previous singles similar to his Coachella set with Swedish House Mafia sounds plausible. The setlist will emphasize the most recent albums while also emphasizing significant moments from the whole discography.
Naturally, Taylor argues, it makes sense “logistically, historically, and sentimentally” for the tour to begin in the place where it all began.
Just under 11 years before he will perform at the city’s largest arena, Rogers Center, next week, The Weeknd made his live debut at the city’s Mod Club on July 24, 2011. He is one of the rare artists who generated major hype around their first release before they had even played a show.
Al-joulani chuckles, “About 3 million people in Toronto say they were at that concert.
The Weeknd’s stirring debut mixtape, “House of Balloons,” which was released earlier that year, was the topic of conversation when Prince and [top Live Nation executive] Steve Herman were present. Of course Prince was interested in learning more about this Weeknd. I recall that he simply smiled while we played the song for him. Prince was constantly aggressive and ready to act.
He also had opening acts during those performances such as Janelle Monae, Esperanza Spaulding, Sharon Jones, and the Dap Kings.
The way that Abel can predict what would happen in the society makes me think of Prince.
The tour is “a hit,” as Al-joulani predicts. “On these 19 performances, he’ll sell over 700,000 tickets, and we’ve already made $100 million in revenue, and that’s just in North America.
He has now joined the pantheon of [stadium-level] performers, and there will be much more.
The Weeknd organized everything while he was busy filming “The Idol,” which is scheduled to debut later this year. “I think he has a clone that he’s not releasing to the world,” claims Taylor.
