For a while, Abel Tesfaye has been planting the seeds of the idea that his forthcoming studio album will be his last as the Weeknd. Hurry Up Tomorrow, the record set for release in January as the conclusion of his latest trilogy, looks to speed up the separation. He’s already started to chip away at what once was with a series of billboards posted in major cities across the world that read: “The End Is Near.”
The billboards appeared in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Paris, London, and Melbourne. On each, the words are written in the exact same way, with space between the “E” and “ND,” as though the rest of the letters from the Weeknd were plucked out.
Each of the billboards replicates the phrase in the style of his previous albums. There’s the bold red and yellow color scheme of Starboy, the classic Kiss Land green, the ripped paper reminiscent of Beauty Behind the Madness, the deep red of After Hours, the chrome font from Dawn FM, and the stark white of his first-ever trilogy: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.
The Weeknd has been laying the groundwork for Hurry Up Tomorrow for months. When he announced the title in September, it was accompanied by a dramatic and lengthy statement that reflected on the nearly 15 years since Trilogy arrived and changed everything for him.
“I look in the mirror and feel both old and new, stuck in limbo and unable to move. I still haven’t faced myself,” he said at the time. “More songs could help, but what do I have left to say? Woe is me in my gilded cage, right? The very thing that once made me invincible failed me on the world stage. A new trauma surfaced, opening floodgates. A new path awaits. When today ends, I’ll discover who I am.”
Hurry Up Tomorrow will arrive on Jan. 24, bringing the trilogy that began with After Hours in 2020 — and continued with Dawn FM in 2022 —to an end. The following day, the Weeknd will perform at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California for a one-night-only concert.
But even that will only be the beginning of the end. On May 16, the Weeknd, or maybe he’ll just be Tesfaye by then, will release the feature film Hurry Up Tomorrow in theaters. He has described the movie as a “musically driven psychological thriller.” Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan will star in the release, which will be directed by Trey Edward Shults.
