The Weeknd makes Barcelona vibrate in his ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ tour

The Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer The Weeknd brought Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium into a world of its own on Thursday night, as the stage transformed into a city built for the 'After Hours Til Dawn' tour.

A city filled with lights illuminated the whole stadium during songs like 'Can’t Feel My Face' and 'Call Out My Name'; but also lit up in flames when 'The Hills' was played.

Past 9.30 pm on Thursday, a row of dancers came on stage dressed all in white, and fans knew the show was about to start. Soon after, The Weeknd appeared on the Estadi Olímpic stage to a chorus of cheers, also dressed all in white, and with his face covered by a metal mask.

The crowd jumped with Abel Makkonen Tesfaye as 'Often' sounded through the arena and lights changed from red to yellow to green following his set list with hit songs like 'Die For You' or 'Starboy', while also including covers of other male artists such as Kanye West, Drake, and Future.

The Weeknd went into his back catalog for this night's set, with songs from his first album 'House of Balloons' from 2011 such as 'The Morning', or more recent hits from his lastest release 'Dawn FM', such as 'Sacrifice', 'How Do I Make You Love Me?' or 'Take My Breath.'

After a moment of silence, the crowd cheered as Abel took his mask off in the center of the stage to continue the show.

While he made everyone in the audience dance, The Weeknd has shown in his Barcelona performance why he is one of the most relevant singers in today’s musical scene, and he has numbers to back him up, as he is Spotify’s number one artist with more than 106 million monthly listeners on the platform.

Abel also enjoyed the stadium he was visiting today when talking to the crowd he confessed “Barcelona, you show me so much love every time I come here, I love you.”

Before the show, Eric and Jennifer, two Barcelona fans, told Catalan News of their excitement, as it was their first time seeing him live: “I always watch him on my phone, but it is not the same. The Weeknd is one of those artists that you have to see live, it is completely worth it to come see him in a show,” Eric said. 

The Barcelona stop was part of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn tour, which has been performed in stadiums all over Europe and South America.

Part of the money from this tour will be donated to the XO Humanitarian Funds to fight against world hunger.