The Weeknd Reveals Reason Behind The Bandages

The Weeknd finally tells all about the mysterious, bandaged character from his “After Hours” era.

The singer finally put our doubts to rest after he explained in an exclusive interview, what inspired his new character and the compelling storyline that followed each music video from his latest album.

The “After Hours” Era

The Weeknd has pulled off a yearlong facial transformation to go along with his hit album “After Hours”, in his music videos. His cut-up face spewed blood everywhere in the music video for his Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit ‘Blinding Lights’. Then the bandaged star got decapitated in the ‘In Your Eyes’ video. His head is then reattached onto another man’s body in the ‘Too Late’ clip. The final reveal of his fake facial enhancements gone wrong  appeared in the ‘Save Your Tears’ music video.

The ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ singer even appeared dressed as this character for his live performances. The Weeknd wore the memorable red suit jacket, black leather gloves and bloodied face with a nose bandage while performing on ‘Saturday Night Live’ ahead of the album release. Towards the end of 2020, he accepted two awards and performed a medley of ‘In Your Eyes’ and ‘Save Your Tears’ with Kenny G with his face covered in bandages.

The Reason Behind The Look

In an interview The Weeknd gave with a famous magazine during his interval for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the singer revealed his intent behind the bruised and bandaged character.

“The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated.”, The Weeknd said. “It’s all a progression and we watch The Character’s storyline hit heightened levels of danger and absurdity as his tale goes on.” When asked about why it seemed like the singer was making his face increasingly unattractive, he replied: “I suppose you could take that being attractive isn’t important to me but a compelling narrative is.” We can’t disagree with him on that one.

By: Anjana Sathyanarayan