What Happened to the Guy in the Weekend

Last year, The Weeknd, existent proper noun Abel Tesfaye, alarmed fans past actualization at multiple events—the American Music Awards, the Video Music Awards, andSat Night Live, to name a few—with a bloody, bloated, bandaged confront. It looked like he'd been beaten or in sort sort of accident, and it got worse and more painful with every appearance. His (totally fake) bloodied and bandaged await, which he's described equally "a progression" while he plays "The Character"—more on that in a sec—has been a thing since March of 2020. It's a reference to his anthologySubsequently Hours, which he released that month.At his much-hyped Super Bowl LV halftime show in February 2021, although The Weeknd didn't wear simulated claret and prosthetics himself, his performancedidfeature dozens of dancers dressed up equally "The Grapheme."

Here's a full explanation and timeline of "The Character."

When did the Weeknd start wearing the fake blood and bandages?

The debut of the expect came onSabbatum Nighttime Livein March of 2020. (His albumAfterward Hourscame out on March twenty, 2020.) Note here that his fake injuries seem mild-ish, at to the lowest degree in comparison to later.

(Prototype credit: NBC )

It didn't accept long for fans to realize that the new look wasnotthe upshot of an accident, but instead a reference to his contempo music. Specifically, it was a callback to his "Blinding Lights" music video, in which The Weeknd browbeaten to a pulp past bouncers, drives drunk, and ends up covered in claret—"I don't want to ever promote drunkard driving, but that's what the dark undertone is," he toldEsquire—and the brusque moving-picture show he released withAfter Hours.

At the time, The Weeknd told CR Fashion Book: "There's...a very committed vision and graphic symbol existence portrayed, and I become to explore a different side of me that my fans have never seen."

Hither's the "Blinding Lights" video:

And here'south the short film. Here, The Weeknd wanders effectually the city, disoriented, with swollen eyes and a cleaved nose. It ends with him, um, murdering a couple in an elevator?

And why did the faux "injuries" keep getting worse?

At the VMAs in August of 2020, The Weeknd stepped it up a notch. Now, the injuries are looking pretty serious:

(Paradigm credit: Kevin Mazur)

And at the AMAs in November 2020, The Weeknd stepped it upwards still again. This appearance is the peak of the bloody face imagery—by at present, his whole face and caput is swathed in bandages, and both of his eyes look badly swollen:

(Paradigm credit: Kevin Wintertime/Getty Images for dcp)

(Paradigm credit: Kevin Wintertime/Getty Images for dcp)

Then things get...weirder, believe it or not. In January of 2021, nine months after the debut of the bloody face, The Weeknd released the music video for "Salve Your Tears," which advances the story further past showing his face in what appears to be the aftermath of plastic surgery. (Which isn't real either, to be articulate.)

He also posted an Instagram with the same wait:

And at the Super Bowl, although The Weeknd didn't play The Character himself, he did have a host ofotherpeople playing him:

(Image credit: Kevin Mazur)

(Image credit: Kevin Mazur)

Picket the full performance below:

So why did The Weeknd exercise all of this?

Basically, The Weeknd is telling us a story through his music, his outfits, and the increasingly horrific "injuries" that his character—The Grapheme, to quote aVariety interview he gave in early 2021—is suffering. The Character drives drunk, fights with bouncers, commits murder, is taken over by dark forces, and ultimately remakes his entire face with plastic surgery.

Another part of The Grapheme: The red suit jacket. The Weeknd has worn a scarlet adapt jacket of some kind at every one of his major public appearances in the past year—to the VMAs, to the AMAs, in the short picture show, and in his music videos. Sometimes it's bedazzled, sometimes it's fire-engine scarlet and oversized, but information technology's always a cherry suit jacket. (Only scroll up through this commodity for proof.)

Interestingly, for the cover of his greatest hits album,The Highlights,The Weeknd picked a photo thatdidn'thave his face bloated and bloody—but he'south notwithstanding wearing that cherry-red jacket.

(Image credit: Courtesy of XO + Commonwealth)

In early Feb of 2021, most a year after the debut of the encarmine face, The Weeknd finally opened upwards toVariety almost what'due south going on: "The significance of the entire caput bandages is reflecting on the cool culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to delight and be validated," he said. "It'southward all a progression and we watch The Character's storyline hit heightened levels of danger and absurdity as his tale goes on."

When pressed further, he said: "I suppose you could take that being attractive isn't important to me but a compelling narrative is." And whenDiversenessasked why sometimes he's in phase makeup and sometimes non, he replied: "Why not play with the character and the artist and let those lines mistiness and move around?"

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Source: https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/a33843884/the-weeknd-face-vmas/

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