Blinded by the lights: Exploring The Weeknd’s Hollywood obsession ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The album went triple-platinum, while single “Can’t Feel My Face” – written and produced with Swedish pop svengali Max Martin – became a summer hit and scooped two Grammy nominations. Tesfaye’s sultry jam “Earned It”, meanwhile, promoted that year’s blockbuster, Fifty Shades of Grey, a film with just one redeeming feature: the soundtrack. He later addressed this on “Reminder”, a song from his 2016 album Starboy, on which he sings: “I just won a new award for a kids’ show/ Talking 'bout a face numbing off a bag a blow/ I'm like goddamn bitch, I am not a Teen Choice.” On “Tell Your Friends”, he recalls a cousin asking for a selfie at a funeral while reminiscing about a time he and Taylor would steal shoes. While he appears to have pared back a little in recent years, After Hours still included songs like “Heartless”, which opens with the charming: “Never need a bitch/ I’m what a bitch need.” On his standalone single “Lost in the Fire” with French producer Gesaffelstein, he drew widespread condemnation for lyrics in which he tells his partner, who believes she might be attracted to other women, to “bring a friend” so “I can f*** you straight”.