2023-07-30 14:50:53
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, The Weeknd, at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, July 29, 2023. (ANNA KURTH / AFP
On Sunday July 30 and August 1, pop-R’n’B singer The Weeknd will give the last concerts of his world tour in France, After Hours, Til Dawn, in Paris, at the Stade de France, and in Bordeaux at the Stade Matmut Atlantique. Initially, this series of concerts was intended to promote his album After Hourspublished in 2020, the one where he imposed his trademark, between alternative R & B and the pop sound of the 1980s. Enriched with the repertoire of Dawn FMalbum released in 2022, the singing tour started in March 2022 in North America has seen many twists and turns.
It was first postponed three times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part provided by Doja Cat is modified following an operation of the tonsils of the rapper – the producer Mike Dean and the DJ Kaytranada then take over. In Toronto, the concert was canceled at the last moment due to a breakdown in the telecommunications network in the region. In Los Angeles, he is interrupted in the middle of a singing tour: The Weeknd loses his voice in the middle of his song Can’t Feel My Face and apologizes on stage to a dumbfounded audience. But in Paris, Saturday July 29, the Canadian of Ethiopian origin who in ten years has established himself as the hitmaker at the crossroads of hip-hop and electronic music, alternative rock and R’n’B cold wave , gave a concert commensurate with his stature.
From his real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, the singer, who became an actor in the series The Idol for HBO, will sow during his show some clues of his cinephilia and above all offer the public the almost thirty hits he has ranked in the world charts over the past ten years.
Read the review: Article reserved for our subscribers Music: The Weeknd takes refuge in the 1980s
By presenting their ticket at the Stade de France, each spectator received a bracelet on which lights of different colors flash throughout the concert. A little before 9 p.m., when dusk was slow to show up, the object seemed a much less effective gadget than the flashes of mobile phones. But as soon as night falls, the spectacle is grandiose. The creativity of the lighting outclasses the scenography, which is sometimes kitsch. On the scene, metal skyscrapers are in ruins. In this urban landscape, we recognize the spire of the Chrysler building in New York, the Toronto Tower, the gutted Saint Paul’s Cathedral.
Phantom of the Opera or MF Doom
The musicians, a drummer banging on his bass drums like in a rock concert, a surfer-like guitarist, a smoky organist who plays synth notes so typical of the 1980s, are perched on structures that blend into the decor . The statue of a gigantic humanoid woman, which pivots on itself according to the offerings that the singer addresses to her, sits enthroned in the middle of a large alley which crosses the stage. At its end, an inflatable moon floats above a promontory – this is where the singer stands to harangue his audience.
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