The Weeknd N.J. concert review: Don’t call it retirement, call it a rebirth

Can you ever count on a musician to put a definitive end to their career — and stick to it?

Mötley Crüe went as far as signing a contract stating they would never tour again, only to destroy the document and get back on the road. The brothers of Oasis, who may not have been in the same room together for years, are reuniting to play two sold-out shows at MetLife Stadium this summer. The list goes on: The Who, KISS, Jay-Z.

For The Weeknd, named Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, it’s separating himself from the nickname, which includes seven No. 1 hits, four Grammy Awards, and over 75 million records sold. As of January, Tesfaye says he plans to leave his alter-ego behind.

The Canadian singer-songwriter’s first of three sold-out shows of the “After Hours Till Dawn” tour at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Thursday wasn’t so much the end of an era. It was more of a celebration of a long-storied career (so far), with a 39-song set that was retrospective, expansive, and encapsulating.

The Weeknd at MetLife Stadium — The Weeknd brings his "After Hours Til Dawn" tour to MetLife Stadium on Thursday, June 5, 2025.Al Mannarino | For NJ Advance Media

The story of The Weeknd began with a foundation of anonymity, as his 2011 trilogy of mixtapes —“House of Balloons,” “Thursday,” and “Echoes of Silence” — were released on his own website without a physical trace of his identity. Thursday’s show began within that same spirit, with Tesfaye, 35, wearing a metallic mask with eyes illuminated by white light.

He was flanked by 20 dancers, wearing red robes and a variation of the metal mask, which seemed like a cross between Stanley Kubrick’s final film, 1999’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” and the now-disbanded interactive play, “Sleep No More.”

“The Abyss” and “Wake Me Up,” songs off The Weeknd’s most recent and final album in his recent trilogy “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” set a moody tone until he quickly switched into party mode with “After Hours” (2020), “Starboy,” (2016), and “Heartless” (2019). After “Heartless,” Testaye slowly took off his mask as fans erupted. He took a moment to take it all in, raising his hands in the air like a triumphant prize fighter receiving his championship coronation.

It’s no secret that Tesfaye has been expanding his artistic endeavors with two polarizing projects: the limited (and highly contentious) 2023 HBO series, “The Idol,” and the autobiographical companion film “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” released in May.

His method of storytelling extended to this stage design and offered dichotomy: At the base, toward the front — where Tesfaye started the show and the band played for its duration — the set was a city in ruins, taking on the spirit of purgatory that 2022’s “Dawn FM” encompasses (as well as its own apocalyptic staging, seen the last time The Weeknd visited the Meadowlands).

The rest of the massive stage was wholly futuristic. Four long ramps featured lights running along the sides and lasers synced to both the songs playing and the colored LED bracelets worn by fans. In the middle of the ramps was a metallic statue of a woman that would rotate in the direction Tesfaye was facing.

Gleeful and gracious, Tesfaye mostly sang while walking from each of the sides of the ramp and a mini stage directly across from the main one.

Placement is everything when it comes to having an abundance of hit songs and knowing when to perform them. If you place too many at the beginning of the show, you’ll burn out the audience.

Tesfaye didn’t have that problem. Hits like “The Hills” (2015), “I Can’t Feel My Face“ (2015), and “Save Your Tears” (2020) were all placed naturally within deeper cuts like “Kiss Land” (2013) and “The Morning” (2011). It wasn’t the construction of the setlist that was excellent, but rather the transitions into the songs were quick and seamless. Not all of the songs were played in full, but it didn’t matter because Tesfaye left it all out in the field.

“New Jersey, New York, it’s been too long,” Tesfaye proclaimed, acknowledging it had been three years since he had played MetLife in July 2022.

To think this concert was in danger of never happening to begin with. It’s well chronicled that Tesfaye lost his voice during a performance in Los Angeles in September 2022. The stress Tesfaye was feeling, which was attached to some of the biggest triumphs of his career, led to the creation of “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” a meditation on death, crisis, and rebirth.

After he performed “Is There Someone Else” (2022), Tesfaye took a moment to collect himself as he began to get emotional from all the cheers, one of a couple of times this happened. It’s one thing to receive awards as judged by your peers and industry higher-ups; it’s another to have a sold-out stadium of roughly 60,000 fans shower you with love and sing along with you for the entire two-hour, 15-minute performance.

That’s not to say the mood was dour; if anything, Tesfaye was jovial. An amusing instance came when the singer-songwriter went out to the crowd and asked a fan to sing “Out of Time” (2022). The young woman may have been a little too excited to sing the chorus and was screaming the words rather than singing them. That elicited a big laugh and a hug from Tesfaye.

At the end of the night, there were a couple of treats for fans who had followed The Weeknd’s journey from faceless constructor of haunting R&B to ’80s synth pop and disco juggernaut. Tesfaye performed “High For This” (2011) and “House of Balloons” (2011) for those “day one” fans.

Is this really the end of the line for The Weeknd? Tesfaye has himself questioned if he can stick to his declaration. The beauty of art is that it doesn’t have an expiration date, and legacy isn’t set in stone. After the conclusion of this tour, Tesfaye may be invigorated to give his alter ego a second wind.

Related coverage:

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com