The Weeknd Announces ‘After Hours’ Haunted House At Universal Studios
The Weeknd is going from “Blinding Lights” to horror nights, teaming up with Universal Studios to create two haunted houses inspired by his 2020 album, After Hours.
The attraction will be called The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare and are designed by the team of Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights and the 32-year-old singer himself.
“I always wanted my own Halloween Horror Nights haunted house, as Halloween has always been significant to my music, so this is a total dream come to life,” The Weeknd told Entertainment Weekly. “I feel like my music videos have served as a launching pad for a collaboration like this, and I cannot wait for people to experience this madness!”
Halloween Horror Nights executive producer John Murdy and Universal’s Orlando senior show director Charles Gray also told the outlet that “these houses expand on the grim world The Weeknd built through After Hours’ visuals.” They describe the journey as a “fever dream” hellscape about “surviving LA.”
“What came out of it was extracting the nightmares: What would it be like if we were inside his head while he’s creating this album?” Gray said. “It isn’t a retelling of the After Hours album; it’s entering the nightmares that were the muse for his songs. There’s a lot of surrealistic, horrific imagery as we [expanded upon scenarios] inspired by the videos.”
The house is reportedly divided into three parts soundtracked by six of The Weeknd’s songs: “After Hours,” “In Your Eyes,” “Heartless,” “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears” and “Too Late.”
The Weeknd’s Most Cinematic Music Videos
Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd, was born on February 16, 1990. The Canadian crooner celebrates his birthday just two days after Valentine’s Day, which seems fitting: his music has romance, sure, but it’s a dark romance. It’s definitely not the stuff of Hallmark cards. Born and raised in Toronto, Tesfaye began his career in 2009 by anonymously releasing music on YouTube. The following year, he met producer Jeremy Rose, who had an idea for a dark contemporary R&B project. Rose produced songs “What You Need,” “Loft Music,” and “The Party & The After Party,” but they were scrapped. The producer let Abel keep the tracks he produced for him under the condition that he would be credited for them. In December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded “What You Need,” “Loft Music,” and “The Morning” to YouTube under the username xoxxxoooxo.
The songs began drawing attention, including that of Drake. He has collaborated with his fellow Canadian on five songs of Drake’s sophomore album, Take Care. Abel gained further recognition when his song “Earned It” was featured in 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey.
Before adopting the stage name The Weeknd, Tesfaye released music under the aliases the Noise and Kin Kane. His current stage name was chosen in tribute to when he dropped out of school, took his mattress, “left one weekend and never came home.” The dropping of the second “e” was to avoid trademark problems with the pop-rock band The Weekend. Tesfaye released his three mixtapes in 2011: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.
To commemorate the award-winning artist’s birthday, we’ve compiled our favorite music videos that took us to another place.
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
