Dawn FM: The Weeknd’s new album

By Remy Zerber
Culture Columnist

   The Weeknd a.k.a. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He just released a new album called Dawn FM a few weeks ago. The album name is a good follow-up from his last record because the name means morning, whereas his last album was called After Hours, which means night. Dawn FM is about love, beauty, and death. His song “Every Angel Is Terrifying” is about how angels are portrayed as beautiful beings in mainstream media, but, in the bible, they are terrifying to look at. I interpret this song to be saying that there is not only one side to a person and people have many sides to their personalities. 


   The album is a radio concept album. It is mostly about death and The Weeknd killing his past After Hours self. The album cover is a picture of him in prosthetic makeup to make him look old. One theory as to why he did this is that he is showing that aging and dying are inevitable since the album is mostly about death. Another theory is that it stands in contrast to the After Hours cover where he looks very youthful. It is also rumored that there will be a third album to complete the trilogy called After Life.


   There have been many rumors surrounding the songs on the album. One of the songs, “I Heard You’re Married,” is rumored to be about Ariana Grande because she has been friends with The Weeknd for years and there is speculation that they dated before she married Dalton Gomez. It could also be about Selena Gomez or Bella Hadid because they were confirmed to have dated him, but they are not married so it wouldn’t make sense if it was about them. Another rumor is that “Here We Go…Again” and “Starry Eyes” are about Angelina Jolie because the two were spotted together having dinner last July. The lyrics in “Here We Go…Again” that are speculated to be about her say "And my new girl, she's a movie star / My new girl, she's a movie star.” In “Starry Eyes”, The Weeknd sings "I only met you in my dreams before / When I was young and alone in the world / You were there when I needed someone / To call my girl / And now you're my reality / And I wanna feel you close / But you're defeated, baby." These lyrics fit Angelina because she is a movie star and considered attractive by men.