New year, new The Weeknd.
On Tuesday, the 30-year-old singer surprised fans while showing off a drastically altered face in the music video for his single, "Save Your Tears," from his 2020 album, After Hours.
The 4-minute video follows the Canada-born star — whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye — as he dances around a masquerade-themed ballroom while looking nearly unrecognizable, donning a plastic surgery-like look that includes fully-filled lips, a crooked nose and surgery scars on his plumped cheeks and face.
After the video was released, The Weeknd further showed off his new cosmetic look with a captionless selfie on Instagram.
While fans speculated about The Weeknd's shocking transformation, Mike Marino of Prosthetic Renaissance confirmed on Instagram that the look is actually prosthetics.
"'Save Your Tears” link in bio check out the weird plastic surgery make up we did for @theweeknd#makeup #spfx #fx #prosthetics#prorenfx," Marino wrote on Instagram.
The Weeknd previously donned bandages on his face for the 2020 American Music Awards and prior to that, he showed off a bloodied face in the music video for "Blinding Lights," which he later replicated for his performances on Saturday Night Live in March and at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards in August.
After Hours, which features tracks including "Heartless," "Blinding Lights," and "Scared to Live," is The Weeknd's first full-length album in four years following 2016's Starboy.
And while the pandemic forced many artists to push back the release dates of their upcoming albums, The Weeknd told Variety in April that wasn't an option for him. "I cut that discussion off right away," the Toronto native said.
"Fans had been waiting for the album, and I felt like I had to deliver it," he continued. "The commercial success is a blessing, especially because the odds were against me: [Music] streaming is down 10%, stores are closed, people can't go to concerts, but I didn't care. I knew how important it was to my fans."
Source: Read Full Article