Following his successful "After Hours" in 2020, The Weeknd has finally announced that "Dawn FM", his new album, will be released this Friday, January 7, 2022.
The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, teased his fans and followers on his Instagram account over the New Year's weekend, adding that people should "wake up at dawn tomorrow". He shared a snippet of a text message exchange with XO Records Co-Founder La Mar, in which he decided to "just drop the whole thing".
The singer also shared a short preview of his new songs on Instagram today, revealing his much-awaited album's release date.
"New album: dawn FM / january 7th," he captioned. Tyler the Creator, Quincy Jones, and Lil Wayne are among the artists name-dropped in the clip who The Weeknd's collaborating in the album.
Just recently, he also released his official album cover on Instagram, sparking more excitement from his fans and followers days before the anticipated album release.
Busy 2021 for The Weeknd
More than a year since The Weeknd's previous full-length studio album, After Hours, he has already released a slew of singles, remixes, collaborative projects, and music videos. He will also star in and co-write the upcoming HBO series "The Idol".
Instead of releasing a follow-up, he spent the first half of 2021 concentrating on several hit collaborative tracks, including a remix of "Save Your Tears" with Ariana Grande, an appearance on Doja Cat's "You Right," and more.
Last month, he made an appearance on Aaliyah's new single, titled 'Poison.' The collaboration was released through Blackground Records 2.0 and Empire in advance of Aaliyah's posthumous studio album, released after two decades of his tragic plane crash death in the Bahamas.
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The Success of 'After Hours'
According to MRC Data's year-end analysis for 2020, The Weeknd's critically praised 14-song album 'After Hours' concluded the year as the top-selling R&B album of the year.
Blinding Lights, the most successful track in the album, has been declared the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 song of all time, outdoing Chubby Checker's 1960 smash "The Twist," which spent 90 weeks at the top of the singles list before being replaced.
Despite the astounding commercial success of the "After Hours" it did not manage to grab a Grammy award, nor even a nomination.
A few hours after the nomination list was announced, Abel resorted to social media to express his displeasure with the Recording Academy's decision.
Grammys then responded, saying that they understood the artist's "disappointment at not being nominated," as they have clarified that The Weeknd's then announcement of performing at the Superbowl in "no way could have affected the nomination process".
