The Weeknd doesn’t do anything half-assed, and at his “One Night Only” concert Saturday night at MorumBIS Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he rose to the occasion with special appearances from Anitta and Playboi Carti, a giant stage backlit by a massive video screen that must have been 100 feet high, dozens of (of course) dazzling lights, a global YouTube livestream of the show, and the premieres of several new songs that are supposed to be from his upcoming album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”
The evening show was essentially an evolution of the “After Hours Til Dawn” concert he brought to North America in 2022 and, in updated form, to Europe last year: a massive, lit, almost runway-like walkway stretching from one end of the stadium floor to the other, but with a giant, two-story, temple-like building in the middle, and a lit, cross-shaped stage at the opposite end of the walkway from the video screen.
The hijab-clad dancers from the earlier stages of the tour remained, as did the stadium-filled light show and the elaborate light show that lit up much of the stadium in white and red from multiple elevated areas of the stadium as well as the stage and amphitheater. He took full advantage of the towering video screen, filling it with everything from clouds to cityscapes, waterfalls to explosions, giant cathedral-like windows, and even a massive close-up of his own eye.
As impressive and crowd-pleasing as the show and effects were, the setlist was another matter: This wasn’t a great show, but rather a kind of remix-style set focused almost entirely on material from the “After Hours” trilogy, with a slew of songs from 2023’s “Dawn.FM” and eight or nine from the new album — which very few people in the world had heard before tonight — along with a song by Travis Scott and Playboi Carti during the latter’s several-minute encore. (The new song they performed together was Apparently a new song SROhDYouGHD forY SHARRHtoto andItotoIAMSwas mocked online. This was a bold move for an artist performing in front of 75,000 people and millions of people on live stream.
The level of confidence it takes to fill nearly the entire stage with the same person is equally daring. The Weeknd isn’t an elaborate dancer and doesn’t change many costumes—he spent this entire show in a black robe with an elaborately embroidered headdress—but he let his loud, powerful voice, songs, and presentation run the night. He got the crowd pumped up for nearly every song, with plenty of his signature “Hey!”s and several cheers for São Paulo, changing one lyric to “I think I found my religion in São Paulo!” The crowd sang along loudly throughout most of the show—to songs they knew anyway—and he led them in a sing-along several times during the show.
Unsurprisingly, Brazilian Anitta received a huge cheer from the crowd when she appeared dancing on top of the temple in a bright red dress to a new song apparently called “Sao Paulo.”
He sprinted the show toward its conclusion with a small set of slow R&B songs that included “Out of Time” and “Is There Someone Else?” before moving into a big “After Hours” section that included the live debut of the drum-and-bass-driven “Hardest to Love” (he rode the song’s hard-hitting rhythm without missing a beat), the romantic “Scared to Live” and finally “Save Your Tears,” before sailing through “Less Than Zero” and closing out naturally enough with an explosive version of “Blinding Lights.”
The show ended after just 90 minutes, but with a slightly disappointing ending as the crowd expected it to be a repeat but instead it was a fleet of illuminated drones flying over the stadium, first creating a sheet of lights, then flashing, and finally spelling out the title of the new album, 'Hurry Up Tomorrow'.
The Weeknd — who has donated millions of dollars to charities over the past five years — has also teamed up with the United Nations World Food Programme to contribute funds from the show to the XO Humanitarian Fund, which supports the organization’s response to the global hunger crisis. The equivalent of $1 from every ticket sold will go to the cause.
Despite Saturday's gig being huge, it was only the first show in the new album's launch campaign – next month he'll be touring Australia on the final leg of his “After Hours” tour, and what comes after that remains to be seen.
Playlist (from setlist.fm)
Fades to Black / Run Away (unreleased song, live debut)
Wake Me Up (unreleased song, live debut)
After business hours
It's Too Late (first live appearance; sings the line “It's too late to save my soul” several times)
take my breath away
Sacrifice (Swedish House Mafia Remix)
How do I make you love me?
Escape from L.A. (sung at the end of “How Do I Make You Love Me?”)
Take Me To LA (Unreleased Song)
Dancing in the Fire (unreleased song, live debut)
Until I Bleed (first live appearance; sings only a few lines of the song before moving on to the next song)
FE!N (Travis Scott Cover) (feat. Playboi Carti)
Till I Bleed (feat. Playboi Carti)
TIMELESS (Playboi Carti Cover) (featuring Playboi Carti) (unreleased song, live debut)
São Paulo (with Anitta) (unreleased song, live debut)
Heartless
Repeat After Me (Break) (first live appearance; sung at the end of Heartless)
Let's Get It All Over (Unreleased Song, Live Debut)
faith
Alone again
Escape (Unreleased Song)
Out of time
Is there anyone else?
The Hardest Thing to Love (Live Debut)
afraid to live
save your tears
less than zero
dazzling lights
Hurry Up Tomorrow (Unreleased Song, Live Debut)
