Save Your Tears

Album: After Hours (2020)
Charted: 2 1
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, The Weeknd addresses a past relationship. He expresses regret for running away from the romance and breaking her heart.
  • There are several clues that The Weeknd is referencing his relationship with Bella Hadid, whom he dated on and off between 2015 and 2019. During the first and second verses he recalls an encounter with an ex in a club.

    I saw you dancing in a crowded room
    You look so happy when I'm not with you
    But then you saw me, caught you by surprise
    A single teardrop falling from your eye


    Ten days after their final breakup, The Weeknd showed up at the Los Angeles club Catch One. According to reports, Hadid was already there, having a good time. However, when The Weeknd arrived, she immediately left.
  • The Weeknd and Hadid dated between May 2015 and November 2016. After they split up, Abel dated Selena Gomez between January and October 2017. The Weeknd and Hadid then reconciled before breaking up again in late 2019. During the third verse, he appears to reference their two attempts at dating as well as his relationship with Gomez.

    So, I made you think that I would always stay
    I said some things that I should never say
    Yeah, I broke your heart like someone did to mine
    And now you won't love me for a second time
  • This is one of five tracks on After Hours produced by The Weeknd with Max Martin and Oscar Holter. Their other collaborations include the singles "Blinding Lights" and "In Your Eyes."
  • Directed by Cliqua, the song's music video continues The Weeknd's creepy transformation chronicled throughout the other After Hours clips. His physical injuries appear to be healing with the help of reconstructive surgery, but it's clear in the visual he's mentally unraveling.

    In the video, we see The Weeknd performing for an audience at a masquerade ball. At one point he picks up and tosses a trophy across the stage, which many fans believe is an allusion to him getting subbed on Grammy nominations for After Hours.

    The Los Angeles duo Cliqua (RJ Sanchez, Pasqual Gutierrez) also directed The Weeknd's previous music video for "Too Late." Their other credits include visuals for Rosalia ("Yo x Ti Tu x Mi"), and Bad Bunny ("Vete," "Ignorantes").
  • The video continues the narrative of previous After Hours visuals where The Weeknd's night of debauchery in Vegas ends badly. He gets his head chopped off, then reattached with plastic surgery and covered in bandages. Here, Abel Tesfaye performs at a masquerade party after his facial bandages are removed.
  • The Weeknd explained his disturbing bandaged look to Variety:

    "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," he 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 if there was anything to take from him adopting an off-putting persona, The Weekend said, "I suppose you could take that being attractive isn't important to me but a compelling narrative is."
  • The Weeknd performed this at halftime of the 2021 Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs in Tampa, Florida. He was joined by an army of clone dancers with flashlights and face coverings - a look inspired by both the coronavirus pandemic and his hit "Can't Feel My Face."
  • Ariana Grande jumped on the remix, which The Weeknd dropped on April 23, 2021. She croons one chorus and adds a verse of her own. It is the third collaboration between the pair, following "Love Me Harder" from Grande's 2014 album My Everything, and "Off the Table" from her 2020 Positions record.
  • Directed by Jack Brown and produced by London animation studio Blinkink, the cartoon video continues the gory, surreal storyline of The Weeknd's other After Hours clips, taking the narrative into futuristic territory. Grande appears in the visual as a cyborg.

    This isn't the first time The Weeknd has been animated; he appeared as himself in an episode of American Dad to poke fun at his sex-fueled persona; for his 2020 "Snowchild" clip, Japan's D'ART Shtajio animation studio drew The Weeknd in the Japanese animation style of Anime.
  • Following the release of the Ariana Grande remix, the song climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 8, 2021, giving both artists the sixth #1 hit of their careers. It was the third single release from After Hours to top the chart, following "Heartless" in December 2019 and "Blinding Lights" in April 2020. This meant that After Hours became just the second album (following Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814) to clock Hot 100 #1s in three separate calendar years.
  • This was Ariana Grande's third Hot 100 chart-topper as a co-lead artist, following collaborations with Justin Bieber ("Stuck With U") and Lady Gaga ("Rain On Me"). The only other artist to clock three #1s as a co-lead artist with three different duet partners is Paul McCartney: ("Uncle Albert - Admiral Halsey" with Linda McCartney, "Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder and "Say Say Say" with Michael Jackson).

Comments: 1

  • Max from New ZealandYou Completely skipped over the part in the song when he whispers "Selena" As soon as the "ooh girl" line ends as well as the girl portrayed in the Music video as being Selena Gomez.
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