For the past few months, The Weeknd has been bombarding fans with hints about new music. “Made so much magic in the small isolated room,” he wrote in a tweet last spring, among the hints. “The After Hours are done, and the dawn is coming,” the artist remarked during an award acceptance speech at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards. Fans were left in the dark about his messages until he revealed a new track earlier this week, ushering in a new chapter in his career.
The tune, titled “Take My Breath,” is an exciting and full-spirited release that sounds like a cross between The Weeknd’s Starboy and After Hours albums. The video for the song features the artist roaming through a darkly lit party. He soon comes upon a woman who captures his attention and with whom he spends the night. Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse when she physically steals his breath away at the end of the video.
Earlier this week, the new song was teased in a two-minute clip. Shortly after he posted the video, an ad for the 2020 Olympics debuted, featuring a new, albeit brief, segment of “Take My Breath.” The Weeknd’s latest video was supposed to premiere before IMAX screenings of The Suicide Squad this week, but it was pulled when health concerns about seizures were raised because the film included moments with extreme strobe lighting.
