The Weeknd Announces 'Dawn FM' Album Release Date & Star-Studded Features

January 03, 2022

The Weeknd has been throwing hints and teasers for his upcoming album for months now, but it looks like fans will finally be getting their hands on the new project very soon. On Monday (January 3), the Canadian crooner officially announced his fifth studio album Dawn FM with an accompanying video that has fans talking all over social media.

According to the announcement, Abel Tesfaye’s After Hours follow-up will drop on Friday (January 7) and fans can expect a different sound this go-around as the trailer promises “a new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd.”

The video trailer finds The Weeknd crashing his car in a desert before a group of hooded figures drag him into what appears to be a ritual of some sort. Fans then see Abel confused by his surroundings before he suddenly becomes an older version of himself while someone wearing a red robe with their face covered approaches him.



The clip also reveals the small yet star-studded list of guest features that’ll join him on this next journey: Lil Wayne, Tyler, The Creator, Quincy Jones, Jim Carrey and electronic music producer Oneohtrix Point Never.

Over the holiday weekend, the Toronto native posted a text conversation with his XO Records co-founder La Mar Taylor in which he hinted at “dropping the whole thing.” Fans were speculating the new album was coming, and they were right.

In November, The Weeknd explained to Billboard what the new album would feel like for fans, which he says will be whatever they want it to be, given all the different sounds he’s giving them to explore.

“Picture the album being like the listener is dead,” he said. “And they’re stuck in this purgatory state, which I always imagined would be like being stuck in traffic waiting to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.”

 

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He continued, “And while you’re stuck in traffic, they got a radio station playing in the car, with a radio host guiding you to the light and helping you transition to the other side. So it could feel celebratory, could feel bleak, however, you want to make it feel, but that’s what The Dawn is for me.

You’ll hear EDM, Hip Hop, and three other types of sounds in one song — and somehow, we make it work.”

The Weeknd is hoping Dawn FM will have the same success as his previous album After Hours. It became his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for four consecutive weeks. The album also spawned the number one song on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time Hot 100 Chart with “Blinding Lights.”

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