Secrets

Album: Starboy (2016)
Charted: 47 47
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is about duplicity and fading trust in a relationship. The Weeknd knows what is in his girl's mind:

    It's a lie, a lie
    I catch you every time
    In your lust, your lust
    Every time you close your eyes
  • The first two lines of the chorus borrow from The Romantics' 1983 hit "Talking In Your Sleep." It then ends with a sample of Tears For Fears' "Pale Shelter".

    Romantics guitarist Mike Skill told Billboard magazine that he enjoys the "futuristic, electronica, techno" flavor of The Weeknd's song. "What's cool is he does a little bit of his own melody on the verse and the chorus," he said.

    "It's good," Skill added. "From what I can tell, I think it's just a lot of the chorus in the end and he doesn't follow the melody that we use. He kind of adds his own melody. It's kind of a mash-up. Kind of a jam on top of a groove."
  • The song supposedly started as a country ballad inspired by Dolly Parton and Conway Twitty.
  • The Weeknd told Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 show this is his favorite song on the Starboy album.
  • The Weeknd tried to find different registers that he hadn't sung in before for Starboy. He told Billboard magazine that he sang "a lot of low stuff" on songs like this one "almost like Toni Braxton."

    The Weeknd added: "On 'Secrets,' I'm a different person. I've played it for people, and they have no idea it's me."
  • The eerie music video was directed by Pedro Martin-Calero marking his first collaboration with The Weeknd The clip was filmed at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Toronto Reference Library and co-stars The Weeknd's fellow Canadian singer Black Atlass as the mystery woman's other lover.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Billy Gould of Faith No More

Billy Gould of Faith No MoreSongwriter Interviews

Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.

Kerry Livgren of Kansas

Kerry Livgren of KansasSongwriter Interviews

In this talk from the '80s, the Kansas frontman talks turning to God and writing "Dust In The Wind."

Gene Simmons of Kiss

Gene Simmons of KissSongwriter Interviews

The Kiss rocker covers a lot of ground in this interview, including why there are no Kiss collaborations, and why the Rock Hall has "become a sham."

How The Beatles Crafted Killer Choruses

How The Beatles Crafted Killer ChorusesSong Writing

The author of Help! 100 Songwriting, Recording And Career Tips Used By The Beatles, explains how the group crafted their choruses so effectively.

Sarah Brightman

Sarah BrightmanSongwriter Interviews

One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.