For over the last year, The Weeknd has been telling a story through performance art. It all started with the release of his "Blinding Lights" music video, which saw him debut a brand new character. His bloody-nosed new reality became a regular part of the Toronto native's look, which progressively changed for the worse over the course of the year. At the American Music Awards, the artist showed up with bandages covering his face. Weeks later, he was seemingly post-surgery, showing off his "brand new face" in the "Save Your Tears" video.
His look has made headlines and attracted a lot of attention, but The Weeknd hadn't formally explained what he was doing or what type of story he was telling, despite it being pretty obvious. That all changes through his latest interview with Variety, where he explains what has been happening.
"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," said The Weeknd about his absurd new look. "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 intentionally making his face more and more unattractive by the interviewer, The Weeknd said, "I suppose you could take that being attractive isn’t important to me but a compelling narrative is."
It's also not an accident that he sometimes appears with his bandages, while he looks completely fine in other instances. He explained, "Why not play with the character and the artist and let those lines blur and move around?"
We'll have to wait and see if his bandaged character makes a return to the stage at the Super Bowl, but it definitely feels like he'll be going all-out for his performance this Sunday.
Are you a fan of his new look?