The Weeknd described his 2019 album ‘After Hours’ as “the perfect piece of art for me to show my tenure in the industry” and as such, it’s no surprise that he’s gone above and beyond for this album. His first full-length album since 2016’s ‘Star Boy’, ‘After Hours’ sees the 30-year-old Canadian singer undergo a transformation in both his music and his delivery of that music. Rather, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye turned his whole album into a performance masterpiece that saw him play a character living through the lyrics of his songs.
Ever since the release of the album, The Weeknd has been sporting bandages, bruises and bleeding features in his music videos – and at red carpet events. And while fans were left bewildered, The Weeknd knew what he was doing. He’d explained to Carine Roitfeld for CR Men that:
“I feel confident with where I’m taking this [new] record. There’s also a very committed vision and character being portrayed and I get to explore a different side of me that my fans have never seen.”
And that vision seems to mean the personification of his lyrics through his appearance. In “Heartless”, The Weeknd is seen losing his sanity as plays “a character who becomes compromised and then overcompensates with all the sins that Vegas provides”. Then in “Blinding Lights”, we’re introduced to a bloody and bandaged Abel, as he sings about “how you want to see someone at night, and you’re intoxicated, and you’re driving to this person and you’re just blinded by streetlights, but nothing could stop you from trying to go see that person, because you’re so lonely.” And before the reveal in “Save Your Tears”, he was seen with his whole face wrapped up in bandages at the 2020 AMA’s.
We now know that this is a lead up to a major facial transformation for “Save Your Tears”. In it, The Weeknd makes a nod to his song “Escape From LA.” On the track, The Weeknd sings about how all “LA girls look the same” because they all get “the same work done” on their face. Mike Marino of Prosthetic Renaissance has since also put the rumours that The Weeknd’s facial change is permanent by sharing the mould and prosthetics involved in the drastically different look that Abel sports in the 4-minute video.
“My original rough sculpture and separated appliances with textures. Consisting of 4 prosthetic appliances, main face being a collapsible mold.”
As seen in the video, the prosthetics were used to create the look of protruding lips, a crooked nose as well as higher and plumper cheekbones. This brings The Weeknd’s transformation to – what we assume is – a close. The choice to undergo this gradual change in his persona in order to give ‘After Hours’ a different life has solidified The Weeknd as one of the greatest artists of this lifetime. Watch how he’s made the change since “Heartless” up until now.
Starting with: “Heartless”
And then: “Blinding Lights”
Moving on to: “After Hours”
Not to mention: “Save Your Tears”/”In Your Eyes” (Live at the 2020 American Music Awards)
And finally: “Save Your Tears”
*Cover image credits: Instagram / @theweeknd