The five-minute video follows the singer after he leaves a 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' performance.
The Weeknd is having a rough night. A lot of them, in fact. The “Heartless” singer has spent the past few months teasing his upcoming After Hours record (March 20) by posting a series of images in which he’s got a bloody bandage over his nose and a generally beat-up look. In a new Anton Tammi-directed short film for the album’s title track, which debuted on Wednesday (March 4), he picks up from the end of a bizarre January performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! as the night turns seriously dark and stormy.
Opening with the Weeknd shaking hands with Kimmel, the camera follows him as he walks offstage smiling in his red suit, with black shirt and tie and matching gloves, his nose clearly bleeding under a white bandage, his face looking increasingly distressed. Slowly strolling the abandoned city streets at night, Abel wanders into the subway, the gash on his eyebrow starting to really flow as the tears well up in his eyes.
Why? We don’t know, but Abel seems real stressed, wringing his leather-gloved hands and silently screaming as ominous music wells up and flashing lights illuminate the sky. The song’s bouncing rhythm explodes in a scene where the singer is dragged by unseen forces across the grimy subway station floor and red, strobe-effect lights fill the screen over what sounds like a murderous attack on a couple behind an elevator door.
What does it all mean? Who knows? Check out the video below and see if you can decipher the clues.
