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The Weeknd  

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The Weeknd is the stage name of Abel Tesfaye (born February 16th 1990), a Canadian alternative R&B singer of considerable critical acclaim and commercial success. He has released one studio album, a compilation album and three mixtapes since his debut in 2011.

Tesfaye dropped out of high school at age 17 and left his native Scarborough, Ontario for Toronto. He began his music career in 2009 by dropping tracks anonymously on YouTube. The Weeknd co-founded the record label XO in 2011 and released three mixtapes in the same year: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.

The Weeknd’s mixtapes began to make noise as people responded to his unique R&B style and mysterious identity. His three mixtapes were downloaded eight million times, an astonishing audience for an artist without even a debut album to their name.

In 2012, The Weeknd signed with Republic Records and re-released his mixtapes as a compilation album, Trilogy. The album was met with positive reviews from critics, and it reached number four on the charts in the US and number five in Canada. At the end of 2012, The Weeknd embarked on a concert tour to promote Trilogy.

He dropped his debut studio album, Kiss Land, in 2013. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 95,000 copies in its first week.

After the release of Kiss Land, The Weeknd wrote a song for the film Fifty Shades of Grey. “Earned It” went on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance. The song was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In 2014, The Weeknd collaborated with Ariana Grande on her song, “Love Me Harder.” It climbed to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In September of that year, The Weeknd kicked off his first headlining tour at Barclays Center in New York.

In May 2015, The Weeknd released the second single from his upcoming album. “The Hills” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number twenty and climbed all the way to the top, making it his first number-one single. The full album, Beauty Behind the Madness, dropped that August and reached number one in Canada, Australia, the UK, and Norway. The Weekend promoted the album by headlining several summer music festivals, including Lollapalooza.

Beauty Behind the Madness was certified double platinum in the US, selling 1.5 million copies worldwide. It was the most-streamed album of the year and produced three platinum singles. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album.

Following this major success, The Weeknd embarked on his first arena tour. The Madness Fall Tour kicked off in his home country at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

At the end of 2016, The Weeknd released his third studio album, Starboy with an eponymous lead single featuring legendary French electronic duo, Daft Punk. After reaching number one in several countries, the song became the duo’s first chart-topping hit and The Weeknd’s third.

Debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, Starboy became The Weeknd’s second consecutive number-one record. It also took home a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album, making it The Weeknd’s second win in that category. The album was certified four-times platinum by the RIAA.

In support of the album, The Weeknd embarked on the Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour in early 2017. It kicked off at the Ericsson Globe in Sweden.

2018 was another big year for The Weeknd. In February, he collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on “Pray for Me”, a song from the Black Panther film soundtrack which peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The next month, Tesfaye released his first EP, My Dear Melancholy. Debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, it became The Weeknd’s third number-one album.

In November, The Weeknd released his first greatest hits album, The Weeknd in Japan, with songs from the setlists of his 2018 The Weeknd Asia Tour.

In 2020, The Weeknd released his fourth studio album, After Hours. The first two singles, “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights,” both peaked at number one on the Billboard 100 chart. “Blinding Lights” also went on to become the first song in history to hold a top-ten spot for an entire year.

To date, The Weeknd has sold over 75 million records and remains one of the top-selling artists of all time. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world. His work toward racial equality and food security has also earned him the title of Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Food Programme.

In January 2022, The Weeknd released his fifth studio album, Dawn FM. He is currently promoting it on his After Hours til Dawn Tour. Catch him live through November 27.

Live reviews

The quintessential emotional artist, The Weeknd brings to stage an performance packed with passion and a desire to please the audience.

The first time I heard his mix tape "House Of Balloons" I instantly thought "damn this music sounds sexy." The production behind each track is practically flawless. What straps your ear to the speaker is the remnants of Michael Jackson mixed with a sound of James Blake streamlined into one perfect-pitch voice. The acoustics of Radio City (NYC) amplified his voice so well it felt like an invisible blanket wrapping you up in soft and warm harmonies. His stage energy is off the chart and he interacts with the crowd throughout his entire performance. I also found the concert production to be stellar, there were LED lighting panels that covered the entire stage re-creating the streets of Tokyo, Japan. The usage of cameras in the stage to project the image of the crowd and The Weeknd on the LED panels is another way in which he kept the audience sucked into his performance. If I didn't know better I would say his dance moves come straight out of a Michael Jackson video from the 90s. Soulful, lively, passionate, and a sexy sound is how I would have to sum him up. The Weeknd is a must see!

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Abel Tesfaye known as "The Weeknd" is a Canadian R&B artist from Scarborough, Ontario. A district of the city Toronto. He left home one weekend and never came back. Hence the name The Weeknd. The Weeknd's music is very sexy and most likely aimed to women. His lyrics contain sexual content and his desires of what he would like to do to them. When you are there. Live. In front of him. It really does feel like he is singing to you! His band knows what he wants and knows how to please an audience. There's Japanese writings and visuals that were incorporated since it was the theme of his recent album "Kissland" The fans go wild and you can't help but go wild too!

The feeling of being there is intense! You even got to have a chance to meet him so he could sign your CD! This gives you ladies a chance to see him one on one! Of course the line will seem like its forever but it is definitely worth it. He inspires so many aspiring singers to go after their dreams.

His vocals were claimed to be "the next Michael Jackson" and I sure do agree! A very sexy and soothing voice and I really do think everyone is with me on this one! The vibe of being there is amazing and it is a privilege for anyone to go there!

This review might not be completely objective as Abel has been my favourite singer for a few years now. However, I can definitely admit the Starboy tour date in Paris was the best pop concert I've been to this year. Even though some songs could have been put out of the tracklist, he mostly sang his catchiest songs of his career, no matter the era. He has great, or should I say, tremendous energy as he continuously sang twenty-something songs with no pause in between. He has no trouble reaching high notes live, his voice sounding even more heavenly in real life. That night, he invited Travis Scott on stage who pumped up the crowd more than him, which is a shame and showcases very well his lack of success and recognition in France, yet, in a sold out stadium. Most people actually didn't even know his real name or the lyrics of his songs ! I would recommend any "real fan" who has known him for a while or who likes his last album a lot to go to a Starboy tour date. I promise you, you won't regret it.

I loved it! There were 3 openingsacts, which I thought were a lot but they were all really good! I really enjoyed Bryson Tiller, I really think he has great potential. But The Weeknd was everything. It was even better than I could imagine and I was thinking big. He did a lot of songs and everybody was singing along and everything just was so perfect. He sounded amazing and with one song he let us all sing and nobody could hit the high notes and he smiled so freaking cute. It went by so fast. Also it was quite funny how big of an age difference there was between the fans. There were elderly people, like a grandmother and her granddaughter together and this elderly couple,... Of course there were a lot of young people. And there also were young teenagers with their friends. Everything was organized very well. And I would definitely go again.

The concert was absolutely stunning. A starship was used and the lights were coordinated very well. Abel sang amazingly in person and I loved jumping up and down screaming with other members of the audience while he sang. The concert was truly magical and I enjoyed every second Abel stood on stage.

As for the other singers who appeared on stage, I was very satisfied with their singing as well. They did an amazing job and captured the entire audience. In between Abel's music, the other singers such as Lil Uzi and 6lack played their hits on stage and the whole crowd became even more alive. If I the concert played out any other way, I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as this concert.

This concert was awesome. The lines were a block away and round a corner it was crazy. We waited bout 2 hours but some waited even more. The weekend had a great live band with solos. I had made it to the near front on the floor.next time I will just be on the balcony because there was a lot of pushing going on throught the night. Not only that but it was like being in a sweat box. A lot of people were allowed to smoke ganja and there were drinks to be served of course. About two people passed on near me which is scary but predictable at a concert extreme as this one. Over all a memorable experience for me and my friends.

The Weeknd was my first official concert and will be my most memorable. The emotion of the songs live is so fulfilling just knowing he's right there in front of me, it's like some weird connection that I can't explain. He felt the song when he sang it and I think that is so unique, most artists sing it so much it's just putting on a performance for them but this was deeper than that. I wish I could relive that feeling again, where I get chills when he can hit that notes so well. I don't care if this review gets published, I just wanted to state how this concert felt.

This was such a great show!! I would definitely see him live again.

-great light display/props/theatrics

-he sang music from all his albums which was well appreciated!

-he interacted with the crowd

-he sings AMAZING live

-chill atmosphere

-performers/musicians were smoking weed on stage

-Abel took a longgg time to get on stage, we were there for almost two hours before he did

-crowd was very drunk & rude (not his fault)

-merchandise was very expensive (I payed $40 for a t-shirt)

The show was awesome!!! No surprise, The Weeknd is even better live than he is on record! Nonetheless, his beautiful voice blows me away every time I hear him. Such a true, talented artist; one of the few left in our generation. Again the show was great, the only thing I wish was different was that I wish the show was longer than an hour & a half-2 hours and I would have loved to have heard some of his older songs!

The Weeknd is amazing live. His voice is incredible and he is beyond talented. Also, the stage production for the Legend of the Fall tour was unlike anything I've ever seen before. The Star Destroyer-esque prop moving above the stage was so cool. Loved every minute of it. Well worth the outrageous cost of the ticket for an obstructed view by the stage.

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The Weeknd Announces 2022 North American Tour

By Nina Corcoran

The Weeknd has announced a 2022 tour in support of his most recent albums, Dawn FM and 2020’s After Hours . The first leg of the trek will see him perform concerts in stadia across the United States and Canada. The tour will feature special guest Doja Cat . According to a press release, there will be more concerts in Mexico, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East announced soon. Find the dates for the first leg below.

The Weeknd has also partnered with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to launch the XO Humanitarian Fund, Powered by World Food Programme. The fund works toward ending the global hunger crisis. The Weeknd has donated $500,000 to the fund, according to a press release, and plans to contribute an additional $1 from each tour ticket sold. “The goal with this fund is to provide immediate life-saving support to people who are on the brink of starvation,” the Weeknd said in a statement. “I’m so thankful to have WFP as a partner and to further expand our reach to those who need it most.”

Last year, the Weeknd postponed his tour for the third time due to the pandemic . When explaining his reasons for doing so, the Weeknd promised the new version of the tour would be “something bigger and special for you which requires stadiums.”

After announcing the end of his After Hours era with “ Take My Breath ” last summer, the Weeknd revealed Dawn FM just a few days before its arrival last month. Swedish House Mafia remixed “ Sacrifice ” for an “Alternate World” edition of the project, which also included the joint track “ Moth to a Flame ” and Agents of Time’s remix of “Take My Breath.”

The Weeknd has been a busy collaborator in recent months, as well, appearing on new tracks with FKA twigs , Post Malone , and Rosalía , plus a posthumous release from Aaliyah . He unveiled his new immersive television special, The Weeknd x The Dawn FM Experience , through Prime Video in February

 Revisit “ 5 Takeaways From the Weeknd’s New Album Dawn FM ” over on the Pitch.

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The Weeknd:

07-09 Toronto, Ontario - Rogers Centre 07-14 Philadelphia, PA - Lincoln Financial Field 07-16 New York, NY - Metlife Stadium 07-21 Boston, MA - Gillette Stadium 07-24 Chicago, IL - Soldier Field 07-30 Washington, D.C. - FedExField 08-04 Tampa, FL - Raymond James Stadium 08-06 Miami, FL - Hard Rock Stadium 08-11 Atlanta, GA - Mercedes-Benz Stadium 08-14 Arlington, TX - AT&T Stadium 08-18 Denver, CO - Empower Field at Mile High 08-20 Las Vegas, NV - Allegiant Stadium 08-23 Vancouver, British Columbia - BC Place 08-25 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field 08-27 San Francisco, CA - Levi's Stadium 08-30 Phoenix, AZ - State Farm Stadium 09-02 Los Angeles, CA - SoFi Stadium

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The Weeknd Revamps, Expands After Hours Til Dawn Tour for 2022

The Weeknd is making big renovations to his 2022 After Hours tour -- on Oct. 18, the singer shared the tour has a new name and will go completely global.

By Starr Bowenbank

Starr Bowenbank

The Weeknd is making big renovations to his 2022 After Hours tour. On Monday (Oct. 18), the “Blinding Lights” singer hopped on Twitter to explain that the After Hours tour — which was previously rescheduled three separate times due to the pandemic — is getting a major update with larger shows and added stadiums across the world.

“The tour dates are moving and will commence in the summer of 2022,” the 31-year-old wrote along with new imagery that revealed the updated set of shows will be called the After Hours Til Dawn Stadium Tour. “Due to the constraints of arenas and the demand for more shows I want to do something bigger and special for you which requires more stadiums.”

Tickets purchased to the original After Hours Tour dates will not be honored, the singer shared in his announcement, though previous ticket holders will be given priority access to purchasing tickets for the new dates. “Current tickets will be refunded automatically and all ticket holders will be given priority to buy tickets for the stadium shows when they go on sale. New dates forthcoming,” he concluded the announcement.

Trending on Billboard

The weeknd says his next album is 'complete'.

The 2022 After Hours Tour was previously postponed in February but saw the three-time Grammy award winner adding dates in North America and across Europe in France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and more. The new After Hours Til Dawn Stadium Tour will feature new dates in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America and the Middle East, according to the new tour poster.

Abel Tesfaye accompanied the tour news with a video that features a brief snippet of a song from his forthcoming album, as planet Earth rotates and is illuminated by twinkling lights. “You know I love it when you’re angry,” the singer croons on the audio, which then morphs into a galactic instrumental by the video’s end.

The tour’s expansion — and rebranded name — likely serves to incorporate Tesfaye’s tentatively titled Dawn album. On the Oct. 5 episode of his Apple Music 1 radio show  Memento Mori , he shared  major album updates and revealed that working on the project caused him to pause the weekly show.

'The Show' Pulls Back the Curtain on The Weeknd's Super Bowl Halftime Performance

“A lot has been going down, a lot of moving pieces. Been settling in a new home. Been shooting videos. Been working on pre-productions for another world. Working on music for the pre-productions for the other world. Taking time to myself so I don’t completely lose my mind. But now we’re back.” he  said , adding, “I hope you had a great summer. Some exciting features coming out in the fall before the album drops. … Some Dawn updates: Album is complete. Only thing that’s missing is a couple of characters who are key to the narrative — some people that are near and dear to me, some people that inspired my life as a child and some that inspire me now. More to come in the following months.”

See The Weeknd’s announcement below.

Tour dates are moving and will commence in the summer 2022 pic.twitter.com/AgeWSy9k4d — The Weeknd (@theweeknd) October 18, 2021

🌎 pic.twitter.com/F9rHD20WnQ — The Weeknd (@theweeknd) October 18, 2021

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The Weeknd Tour History

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The Weeknd Sets ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ North American Stadium Tour

• By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

The Weeknd has finally detailed the new dates for his long-postponed North American tour, with the singer set to embark on his first-ever stadium tour this summer.

The first leg of the After Hours Til Dawn Tour begins July 8 with a hometown gig at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. After that, Abel Tesfaye will return to the football stadium confines of his Super Bowl halftime performance for 17 more shows at NFL venues spanning from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.

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The Weeknd’s trek, then the After Hours World Tour, was originally set for 2020  and then  postponed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic; it was next rescheduled for early 2022 before the Weeknd opted to push the dates back again in order to bring his live experience to football stadiums.

Now dubbed the After Hours Til Dawn tour to incorporate his new LP Dawn FM , the first leg of the jaunt will now also feature Doja Cat as special guest. Check out the Weeknd’s site for ticket information.

The singer also launched his XO humanitarian fund in conjunction with the United Nations World Food Programme. The singer will donate one dollar from each ticket in addition to a $500,000 donation from the singer and an additional $1 million donation from World Food Program USA.

The Weeknd Tour Dates July 8 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre July 14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field July 16 – New York, NY @ Metlife Stadium July 21 – Boston, MA @ Gillette Stadium July 24 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field July 27 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field July 30 – Washington, DC @ FedexField August 4 – Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium August 6 – Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium August 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium August 14 – Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium August 18 – Denver, CO @ Empower Field at Mile High August 20 – Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium August 23 – Vancouver, BC @ BC Place August 25 – Seattle, WA @ Lumen Field August 27 – San Francisco, CA @ Levi’s Stadium August 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ State Farm Stadium September 2 – Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium

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The Weeknd Announces Second Leg of 2023 ‘After Hours Til Dawn Tour’

The Weeknd. (Photo Courtesy of XO Records/Republic Records)

The Weeknd will embark on the second leg of his After Hours Til Dawn Tour in spring 2023, playing shows in Europe and Latin America territories. 

The 27-date stadium tour begins June 10, 2023, at Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

From there, The Weeknd will visit Dublin, London, Milan, Paris, Munich, Mexico City and São Paulo, before concluding with a show in Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 15, 2023.

According to The Weeknd’s website, “fans who had tickets for the 2022 After Hours Arena Tour in Europe” can visit this landing page for presale access.

General on-sale tickets start this Friday, Dec. 2, at 12 p.m. local time.

Kaytranada and Mike Dean retain their North American duties as special guests on select dates.

The Weeknd’s upcoming 2023 dates follow his sold-out North American After Hours Til Dawn Tour , which recently concluded with two nights in Los Angeles.

The tour will continue to support his 2022 album Dawn FM , released Jan. 6 via XO/Republic Records. He quickly responded with an expanded edition, Dawn FM: Alternative World .

Dawn FM featured previously shared tracks “ Take My Breath ” and “ Sacrifice .” Cliqua directed the visual for both tracks.

Speaking of “Sacrifice,” Chxrry22 , signed to XO Records, recently released her version .

Throughout the year, The Weeknd dished out alternate versions of Dawn FM tracks, including “ Out of Time ,” “How Do I Make You Love Me?” and “ Best Friend ,” to name a few.

Kaytranada remixed variations for the first track, while Summer Walker joined The Weeknd for the latter standout.

The Weeknd earned two nominations at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards, including Male Artist of 2022 and Album of 2022 ( Dawn FM ). 

Music aside, The Weeknd has a new series coming to HBO and HBO Max titled The Idol . It’s described as “the sleaziest love story in all Hollywood.” (The trailer can be viewed above.)

Briefly touching on Kaytranada, he recently released “ Twin Flame ” with Anderson .Paak in August. He contributed production to Joyce Wrice ‘s recent project, Motive , released in October.

Kaytranada is nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (“ Intimated ” featuring H.E.R.) at the 65th Grammy Awards. The track appears on his 2021 EP of the same name.

The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour 2023 Dates

Jun 10 – Manchester, England @ Etihad Stadium Jun 14 – Horsens, Denmark @ Nordstern Arena Jun 17 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Tele2 Arena Jun 20 – Oslo, Norway @ Telenor Arena Jun 24 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Johan Cruijff Arena Jun 28 – Dublin, Ireland @ Marlay Park Jul 2 – Hamburg, Germany @ Volksparkstadion Jul 4 – Dusseldorf, Germany @ Merkur Spiel Arena Jul 7 – London, England @ London Stadium Jul 11 – Brussels, Belgium @ King Baudouin Stadium Ju 14 – Frankfurt, Germany @ Deutsche Bank Park Jul 18 – Madrid, Spain @ Cívitas Metropolitano Jul 20 – Barcelona, Spain @ Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Jul 22 – Nice, France @ Allianz Riviera Jul 26 – Milan, Italy @ Ippodromo La Maura Jul 29 – Paris, France @ Stade de France Aug 1 – Bordeaux, France @ Matmut Atlantique Aug 4 – Munich, Germany @ Olympiastadion Aug 6 – Prague, Czech Republic @ Letnany Airport Aug 9 – Warsaw, Poland @ PGE Narodowy Aug 12 – Tallinn, Estonia @ Tallinn Song Festival Grounds Sep 29 – Mexico City, Mexico @ Foro Sol Oct 4 – Bogotá, Colombia @ Estadio El Campín Oct 7 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil @ Estádio Nilton Santos Engenhão Oct 10 – São Paulo, Brazil @ Allianz Parque Oct 13 – Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Hipódromo de San Isidro Oct 15 – Santiago, Chile @ Estadio Bicentenario La Florida

            View this post on Instagram                         A post shared by The Weeknd (@theweeknd)

Get tickets on The Weeknd’s official website .

Antwane Folk

Antwane joined Rated R&B in January 2013 after graduating from the University of South Carolina. He is the assistant editor. His niche is seasoned R&B acts, along with radio stats on urban and R&B formats.

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This table lists how often a song was performed by The Weeknd. Multiple performances from the same setlist are also counted towards the total.

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Emmy Song Category Draws Submissions From the Weeknd, Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Ronson, Pasek & Paul and Other Big Music Names

Songs performed by Barbra Streisand, Steve Martin and Travis Scott are also in the mix.

By Jon Burlingame

Jon Burlingame

• Emmy Song Category Draws Submissions From the Weeknd, Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Ronson, Pasek & Paul and Other Big Music Names 2 days ago
• Jazz Great Wayne Shorter Gets His Due in ‘Zero Gravity’ Doc 3 days ago
• Rare Sherman Brothers ‘Mary Poppins’ Tapes Unearthed by Historian, Featuring Conversations About Classic Disney Songs 1 week ago

Songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are on the verge of EGOT status… that is, if Emmy voters nominate their song from “Only Murders in the Building” and it winds up winning three months from now.

Pasek and Paul — already Oscar winners for “La La Land” and Tony and Grammy winners for “Dear Evan Hansen” — could finally manage that feat with the witty comic patter song “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?,” sung by Steve Martin and co-written with fellow Tony and Grammy winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for the third season of the Hulu comedy-drama.

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Barbra Streisand’s performance of “Love Will Survive” from Peacock’s “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” will be a serious contender. Written by score composers Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve along with producer Walter Afanasieff and lyricist Charlie Midnight, it’s a rare new song release from the now 82-year-old diva. And if it’s nominated and wins, that would mark a first Emmy for veteran film composer Zimmer (“Dune,” “The Lion King”).

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who already has two Emmys , is a potential nominee for the Spanish-language “Esperando Pelitos” from Netflix’s animated series “Big Mouth,” while the Weeknd has entered two songs from HBO’s critically lambasted “The Idol” (“One of the Girls,” “World Class Sinner”).

NatGeo’s “Genius: MLK / X” is offering three songs: Aloe Blacc’s “Change the World,” Jacob Banks’ “Jericho” and Rhiannon Giddens’ “Home”; all would be first-time nominees if voters decide in their favor. Bryan Adams and Mutt Lange are also in the race with “You’re Awesome” from Comedy Central’s “Office Race.”

Sixty songs were entered this year, down from last year’s 80 entries. In fact, five of the seven music categories received fewer entries than last year. Only music direction received more: 22 this year, including such high-profile candidates as Usher’s Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show, Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica Ball” and Jennifer Lopez’s “Apple Music Live” show.

Two-time Emmy winner Rickey Minor is back in the running with his musical direction of both the Oscar telecast and “The Kennedy Center Honors,” and “Saturday Night Live” has entered its April 13 episode with Ryan Gosling for musical direction.

The main-title theme music category is distinguished by the number of Oscar winners and multiple Oscar nominees: Alexandre Desplat (“The Regime”), Atticus Ross (“Shogun”), Rachel Portman (“We Were the Lucky Ones”), James Newton Howard (“All the Light We Cannot See”), Kris Bowers (“Secret Invasion”) and Thomas Newman (“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”).

The sheer numbers involved (106 entries for series score, 69 for limited or anthology series score, 52 for documentary score, 49 for main-title theme, 117 for music supervision) again demonstrate the impossibility of seeing and judging all the entries, a challenge faced every year by the music branch.

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The perfect Father's Day gift:

How much money every player made from the 2024 U.S. Open’s record-setting purse

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Bryson DeChambeau is heading home with a hefty winner's check.

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Like all the major championships, the 2024 U.S. Open purse has increased significantly over the years, and it made another jump this year.

Thanks to LIV and the introduction of Signature Events on the PGA Tour, purses have risen astronomically across the board in pro golf. But the major championships have their own history of keeping up with the Joneses.

Just three years ago, in 2021 , the U.S Open purse was set at $12.5 million — the biggest prize pot of all four majors. Two years ago, the 2022 U.S. Open purse increased to $17.5 million — a $5 million increase. And last year, the 2023 U.S. Open purse jumped yet again to a whopping total of $20 million, an increase of $2.5 million from the previous year. (The Players Championship remains the richest purse in golf at a total of $25 million.)

This year, the 2024 U.S. Open purse increased again to a total of $21.5 million — an increase of $1.5 million. If you’re keeping track at home, the math is pretty eye-popping: In just three years, the U.S. Open purse has increased by $9 million — that’s 72 percent!

That means there’s also a seriously nice increase in the winner’s cut too. This year’s U.S. Open champion will surpass the payout received by 2023 champion Wyndham Clark by $700,000, with a $4.3 million total payday — the largest ever for a major champion. The runner-up will receive a cool $2.322 million, third place will get $1.445 million, and fourth place will clear seven figures too, with a payout of $1.013 million.

Even the players who  missed the cut  receive a payout of $10,000 each. So how much did the rest of the players in the field come away with this year? You can find a complete list of the 2024 U.S. Open payouts for each player below.

How much money every player made at the 2024 U.S. Open

Win: Bryson DeChambeau, $4,300,000

2. Rory McIlroy, $2,322,000

T3. Tony Finau Patrick Cantlay, $1,229,051

5. Matthieu Pavon, $843,765

6. Hideki Matsuyama, $748,154

T7. Russell Henley Xander Schauffele, $639,289

T9. Sam Burns Davis Thompson Corey Connors, $502,391

T12. Sergio Garcia Ludvig Aberg, $409,279

T14. Thomas Detry Collin Morikawa, $351,581

T16. Tommy Fleetwood Akshay Bhatia Taylor Pendrith, $299,218

19. Shane Lowry Aaron Rai, $255,759

T21. Max Greyserman Daniel Berger Min Woo Lee Stephan Jaeger Brian Harman, $203,607 

T26. Brooks Koepka Zac Blair Chris Kirk Neal Shipley (a) Tom Kim Tyrrell Hatton, $153,281

T32. Adam Scott Si Woo Kim Sahith Theegala Keegan Bradley Isaiah Salinda Christiaan Bezuidenhout Cameron Smith J.T. Poston Denny McCarthy, $126,901

T41. Frankie Capan III Harris English Jordan Spieth Scottie Scheffler Tom McKibbin Tim Widing Emiliano Grillo Billy Horschel Luke Clanton (a), $72,305

T50. Justin Lower Matt Kuchar Nicolai Hojgaard Mark Hubbard, $51,065

54. Nico Echavarria, $47,370

55. David Puig, $46,501

T56. Seonghyeon Kim Ben Kohles Ryan Fox Sepp Straka Greyson Sigg Brian Campbell Adam Svensson Wyndham Clark, $44,546

T64. Matthew Fitzpatrick Francesco Molinari Martin Kaymer, $42,155

T67. Cameron Young Brendon Todd, $41,286

69. Dean Burmester, $40,417

T70. Gunner Broin (a) Brandon Wu, $39,982

72. Sam Bennett, $39,548

73. Jackson Suber, $39,113

74. Austin Eckroat, $38,678

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Rory mcilroy just lost the u.s. open in heartbreaking, agonizing fashion, bryson dechambeau wins u.s. open after rory mcilroy's late collapse, his dad died picking him up from golf. then came u.s. open sunday and a putt, scottie scheffler's u.s. open dud raises an uncomfortable question.

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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Talk about a musical  score . 

Sex is the best with Nicki Minaj, The Weeknd or Deftones, according to a June 2024 report on music’s influence during risqué rolls in the hay. 

“Whether setting the mood, increasing satisfaction, or even influencing the length of intimate moments, the right playlist can make all the difference,” explained study authors from virtual healthcare hub ZipHealth.

“Our findings reveal the surprising ways in which our playlists shape our experiences in the bedroom.”

Researchers surveyed over 1,000 canoodlers in the US about their XXX song preferences and analyzed more than 11,000 chart-toppers across 148 Spotify playlists to determine bedroom tune trends. 

A staggering 68% of people who listen to music during sex say the sweet sounds help reduce sexual performance anxiety, while an impressive 63% say the ditties significantly increase the duration of sex.

Hip-hop lovers are lasting the longest of all top genres — including classical, R&B, pop and heavy metal — clocking in an average coitus runtime of 31.5 minutes. EDM heads, however, aren’t quite going the distance, knocking boots for a quickie 27.2 minutes, per the probe. 

And pleasure-mongers with a penchant for lusty lyrics like to ménage à Minaj. 

“‘Super Freaky Girl’ by Nicki Minaj was the most popular song on sex playlists,” noted clinicians. 

The native New Yorker’s NSFW nod comes just as fans fear she may be on the brink of divorce from her husband, Kenneth Petty. 

“The Weeknd was most prevalent in ‘unprotected sex’ playlists,” added the analysts. “[And] the most common artist appearing on sex playlists across the board.”

His admiration amongst the kinky is no real surprise. 

The Canadian crooner’s ever-sensual “Earned It” — which earned Oscars praise for sound-tracking fetish flick “50 Shades of Grey” — was recently ranked the most stellar sex song for folks of the Aquarius sign. 

Sexperts also found that 62% of hanky-panky hedonists report higher levels of sexual satisfaction whenever a good track is playing in the background.  

“The next time you’re curating an intimate playlist,” encouraged ZipHelath pros, “remember that the perfect song might just lead to a more fulfilling and exciting experience.”

Here’s a list of the Top 10 artists featured across sex playlists 

• Kanye West 
• Drake 
• Lana Del Rey
• Kendrick Lamar
• Tyler the Creator 
• Rihanna 
• Taylor Swift 

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Is Wu-Tang’s Million Dollar ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ Album Actually Good?

We got to listen to Wu-Tang Clan’s infamous one-of-one album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, during a special listening session in New York City. Here are our thoughts.

On a Saturday night in June, I found myself on one of the Lower East Side streets where Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring used to throw up their work for free, in the subway stations and on the sides of buildings in the late ‘70s. I was on Norfolk, just below Houston, in a synagogue listening to a sampling of the now $6 million sole existing physical copy of the almost a decade old Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin . Since its reveal in 2015, the album has been a lightning rod, provoking an array of responses from the public, and within the Clan itself , over how the album was recorded, where it ended up, and who it should belong to. The Once Upon a Time in Shaolin project both addresses and anticipates many of the issues that would befall the recorded music industry, and arguably the global economy. OUATIS is an ordeal, and an enterprise that confronts its audience with a deceptively difficult question: What is a rap album actually worth? Lost in all this head scratching and navel gazing is the elemental question of what the album actually sounds like. Is it a bust? A lost classic? A combination of both? I tend towards the latter. But before we get to that, let’s consider the almost 30 year journey the album took to get to me. 

It begins in Tilburg, a small city in the Netherlands, in the late ‘90s, when an 18 year old Moroccan entertainment law student named Tarik Azzougarh had a Quixotic dream many of us shared at the time: he wanted to join the Wu-Tang Clan. The Clan—consisting of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, the now deceased Ol' Dirty Bastard, U-God, and Masta Killa—was coming off a flawless four years. They were birthed into New York City’s hip-hop ecosystem fully formed, a collective of nine Staten Island and Brooklyn kids from public housing with an aesthetic built on a matinee double feature of Kung Fu and Blaxploitation. Theirs was a vision of urban poverty articulated by dense, abstract rhymes composed of ghetto mysticism, pop culture references, and street raps that shouldn’t make sense but does. The RZA, their leader—who has always had a taste for brilliant and bugfucked music business experiments that innovate and redraw the lines dividing art and commerce—introduced this crew of strangers and their inscrutable lore, and immediately began executing an implausible master plan to launch them all as solo rappers on different record labels, and turn them all into stars. For the most part, the plan worked. 

So Tarik, the Dutch settler, washed up on our shore, armed with little but hope and uncertainty. By his unverified telling (between podcast interviews and the strange and shaggy book about the making of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin by Cyrus Bozorgi ), within a few visits, the aspiring rapper/producer, who named himself Cilvaringz, had found RZA’s mother and sister at the short lived Wu-Tang nail salon, Wu Nails, on Victory Boulevard in Staten Island. Cilvaringz used this link and tremendous, dogged persistence to become the first international Wu-Tang signee as a Clan affiliate. As his senior project in college, Cilvaringz proposed, and got to manage RZA’s first solo international tour, on which he also served as the opener. By 2008, he began working on his most ambitious and farfetched sounding project with RZA: A Wu-Tang Clan album that would be sold for millions to a single buyer for top dollar. It would take seven years, during which the nature and business of producing and consuming music would change radically.

During this time, the industry was confused, trying an array of strategies and experiments to find a viable path forward. The RZA’s dream was to use OUATIS as a kind of performance art that could remind people that a rap album, particularly a good one from a collection of generation defining artists, was a labor intensive special effort, one that talented and thoughtful people dedicate years of their lives to. That it deserves better than you throwing it on while you’re half focused on your infinite scroll, skipping around waiting for a track to catch your ear, then hastily forever dismissing it as “mid” and moving on to the next bit of stimuli. 

The RZA and Cilvaringz had hoped this project might be purchased by a record label with vision, an altruistic endeavor they could underwrite as a tide to raise all boats. It would be played in museums, in concert halls. It was confined to two CDs and held in an ornate suitcase that would tour the world. For two hours, across a reported 30 songs that required seven years of work to compose, the audience would sit in contemplation of a recorded rap album and remind themselves what it means to listen . But the record labels said “no thanks,” as did whatever benevolent art collectors or high society types RZA might’ve hoped the album could’ve attracted. In retrospect, it ended up in the most predictable place, in the hands of a douchebag pharma bro with fuck you money who bought it on a lark and kept it in his apartment as a $2 million plaything. The other members of the Clan, largely left in the dark during this process , were less than enthusiastic in their response. 

We all know what happened to Martin Shkreli several years after purchasing OUATIS , and if you don’t, feel free to brush up with this link . But the story becomes interesting again seven years later, in 2021, when an NFT art collective that calls itself PleasrDAO (the DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization) purchases the album “from” the Department of Justice, as part of Shkreli’s asset seizure, for $4 million or double what Shkreli paid for it.

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Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was sold with tight legal restrictions around how it’s allowed to be “commercially exploited” which can’t happen for 88 years from the time of initial purchase. One of the common complaints I’d imagine most diehard Wu-Tang fans have is why it can’t just be put online to stream for free—and there are a number of cynical reasons—but the one that isn’t cynical is it goes against the wishes of the RZA, because he understood that the minute it’s available to stream, and the public has control of the album, it will no longer be special.

On Saturday, June 8th, I got to experience that album, at least partially, as RZA had intended. The Angel Orensanz Foundation building is the oldest standing synagogue left in New York City. It is also the setting where the photographer Danny Hastings shot t he cover of the first Wu-Tang album, Enter the 36 Chambers . Pleasr clearly blew a bag on this three day event, parceled out in lots of 35 over the course of three days for media and influencer types, mixed in with a select few diehard fans of both the Wu-Tang Clan and cryptom before the album travels to the Museum of New and Old Art in Tasmania, where it will play for nine days.

The synagogue is comically beautiful, a Tim Burton church dramatically draped in flowing translucent fabrics that close off sections on either side of the main hall where VIPs lounge and supplies are stored. There are conversation sofas to lounge on, near the front of the room, and a few rows of chairs lined up behind the couches for the small crowd. At the front of the room is a shrine spread with dozens of flickering candles, all directing your eye to the focal point artifact at its head: The large case embossed with a Wu logo housing the double disk album that serves as an open ark, a torah in the temple. Soothing white noise of a tide coming in is piped in through a massive sound system. Fans wait in line to take pictures with the case, and enjoy branded, premix margaritas with sesame oil floats, which weren’t as gross as they might sound.

And then our phones are secured in pouches and the album begins, or I shouldn’t say that, because what we heard was the same quick cut edits that played for a room of potential buyers a decade ago at a listening event at MoMA , before the initial auction. It was 17 minutes, followed by an additional two songs played in full. The smoke machines started to fill the room with a pleasant, immersive fog and the music faded in. There were no visuals, no one spoke, some nodded their heads and tapped their feet, polite applause followed each song, but that’s it. It was different from a standard listening party because of the stakes. It’s not work we’ll all have access to in a matter of days or weeks. You’re just kind of alone with your thoughts, isolated from the spin cycle and echo chamber, interrogating the quality of the music being played. You get one shot, and that’s it.

For what it’s worth, I thought what I heard of the album was dope. There was a Redman heavy song I appreciated because I love Redman. One of the songs played in full for us was a sequel to the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...  classic “Rainy Days,” and when the souped up remix of the beat dropped I got chills. The title track is a Morriconesque epic that sounded absolutely wild in the synagogue. But “in the synagogue” is the key qualifier, and why I wouldn’t take my opinion too seriously. As word begins to leak out, beware the chattering class who will be privy to hearing something a few dozen people on earth have ever heard, which could inflate the assessment of it in their estimation. I listened to Wu-Tang’s 2014 effort, A Better Tomorrow , on my ride home, and as I biked the Manhattan Bridge with an AirPod in, I tried to imagine what it might sound like artfully edited down to its best 17 minutes, played on a John Woo stage set through a state of the art sound system. And I thought that would probably sound dope too, and suddenly I could see the point RZA was trying to make. 

The least important thing about Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is the quality of the album. But if you wanted to approximate the tone and general vibes, you could listen to A Better Tomorrow , an album that garnered lukewarm response upon release. That album, produced by RZA, was made in three years, within the seven year span the Clan was working on OUATIS , in what sounds like a more coherent and intentional manner. You could also listen to Cilvaringz’s I , released in 2017. It’s a perfectly fine work of Wu-Tang cosplay and karaoke, with the sort of accomplished, replacement level RZA beats that 4th Disciple and Mathematics once populated “lesser” Wu projects with. 

The quality of the album doesn’t matter because if it’s not a classic, it would only serve to bolster the proof of concept for the experiment. As a commodity, the album has never been cheaper, which has radically remapped the financial structure for how artists produce and get paid for their music. When was the last time you had A Better Tomorrow conversation? When was the last time you thought about it? The value of this album is in its scarcity, it exploits our curiosity. At a time when everything is immediately accessible to us via the nearest screen, here is one thing we can’t have. It’s a Schrödinger’s box and you want to open the box, and a decade later it continues to captivate its audience because it provokes many of the questions that haunt the music industry, and our lives and at least suggests an answer that provokes many more questions and problems: Ethical questions of access to and ownership of art—that rap has always been a populist medium and it all should remain cheap and accessible for everyone—as well as functional questions of how to continue operating an industry dissolving before our eyes. 

If you’re in New York City, head to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few hours and walk its halls. Someday soon you may be able to hear Once Upon a Time in Shaolin there, but for now, “all” you’ll see is a respectable cross section of the entire history of art made by people from every corner of the Earth. And among these paintings, sculptures, and artifacts, you’ll see devotional paintings and sculptures, and portraits of rich white guys. Work that was groundbreaking and important in its technique, in its applied theory, but work that was commissioned by the church, or the crown, or the super wealthy gentry class. 

What you won’t find are at least some Basquiats and Harings. You can find facsimiles online, but you can’t and may never again be able to experience their gale force, platonic experience, full scale in a large, blank, breathable space, hanging centered and framed on a wall. Because some are in other museums, and some are in private collections, in the living rooms and dining rooms and studies of very rich collectors around the world. The exact scenes Haring once painted on D train platforms can now sell at auction for over five million dollars. In 2017, a Basquiat sold for 110.5 million , thanks to a market set by the ancestors of the PleasrDAO guys and collectors like Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz. Or millionaires and billionaires minted by a former version of the rap industry, with different stakes, different scales, and different incentive models. It seems extreme to me. But someone was willing to pay that much for them, so I suppose that’s what they’re worth.

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A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event. A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event. A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event.

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Angela Watercutter

The Plain White T’s Gave Drake a Plain Old L

As if he didn’t have enough to deal with amid his beef with Kendrick Lamar (or perhaps to distract from it), Drake showed up on a remix of parody rapper Snowd4y’s cover of Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah,” called “Wah Gwan Delilah,” that has everyone … perplexed? Annoyed? Laughing?

Let’s walk through this together. It’s a mess.

On Monday, a fresh remix of “Wah Gwan Delilah” showed up on Snowd4y’s SoundCloud . It had what appeared to be Drake joining the comedian in a series of quips about women and name-checks of Toronto landmarks like the Yonge-Dundas Square mall. (“Wah gwan” is Jamaican patois for “What’s up?” and is common in the city, which has long had a sizable population of people of Caribbean descent .)

As the track spread, it made its way to the Plain White T’s themselves, who posted a video on X and TikTok with the caption “too stunned to speak.” Front man Tom Higgenson also says, “It’s crazy that everybody thinks that it’s real,” seemingly referencing early rumors that Drake’s lyrics were generated using artificial intelligence. Higgenson also makes a series of faces that give off the appearance that he just smelled a fart.

Those rumors, though, are likely untrue. Drake posted the song to his Instagram Story, seemingly confirming its authenticity.

It’s easy to see, though, why everyone was confused. AI, as WIRED’s Evy Kwong pointed out Thursday on TikTok , has become so prevalent that it has caused people to question everything. When the song “ Heart on My Sleeve ” dropped, it took many people several listens to realize it wasn’t actually Drake and The Weeknd. Many fans probably never would’ve known the Beatles’ “Now and Then” wasn’t just a pristine long-lost tape if Paul McCartney hadn’t touted the AI needed to save it. Johnny Cash covers Taylor Swift from beyond the grave. Examples of AI’s ability to fool our ears feel truly endless.

The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to TikTok.

With the realness of Drake’s presence on “Wah Gwan Delilah” seemingly confirmed, the floodgates opened. Rap Twitter, as Billboard noted , had a field day “with the main perception being that after losing the battle to Kendrick, Drake is now just losing it in general” and “leaning into his Toronto-ness” for some image repair.

Likely, this will have the opposite effect. While Drake Reddit is screaming that it’s satire and if people don’t get it, “ the joke is probably on you ,” other swaths of the internet remain unable to keep a straight face—or at least a non-cringing one. Vulture, in its writeup of the remix, simply said “ post-beef Drake cannot be serious .”

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Lamar, on the other hand, is very serious. Seriously scheduling his “Ken & Friends” concert, announced on Wednesday , to be held on June 19—Juneteenth—in Inglewood, California.

Does this mean Drake and Lamar’s beef is over, or at least that Drake wants to move on from it? Perhaps. As C. Brandon Ogbunu and Lupe Fiasco wrote for WIRED just a few weeks ago, technology has forever changed how these conflicts play out. Whereas it used to take MCs days or months to release a new dis track on a mixtape or album, they can now be online in minutes. If Drake wants to divert attention by getting on Snowd4y’s SoundCloud remix, so be it. Whether or not it’ll work is up to the internet.

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Loose Threads

The rise of Zau. Remember Tales of Kenzera: Zau , the game that Raised by Wolves star Abubakar Salim made to grieve his father ? Salim has been receiving a lot of harassment about that from, he says, “people who see diversity as a threat.” He posted a video late last week addressing that harassment and lowering the price of his game so that more people could experience it. Games have power, he said, “because there’s room for all of us.” If you want to see more of Salim, he makes his debut in House of the Dragon on June 16.

License to chill. Honestly, I don’t even know what to write about this one, but the story behind that video that went viral of the guy who called into court from his car while his license was allegedly suspended just gets weirder and weirder.

Happy Pride. Here’s a TikTok of someone playing Chappell Roan on church bells .

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