The Weeknd drops new video for ‘Save Your Tears’

The Weeknd has dropped the bandages for his latest music video, and what’s underneath is definitely something to talk about. The Canadian performer is continuing his commitment to his album’s dark storyline with the new video for “Save Your Tears,” in which he sports prosthetics of some facial surgery gone seriously wrong.

The performer is wearing the same red jacket and black gloves from his previous After Hours videos in the four-minute art piece, only this time he’s bedazzled. He’s also got on blue eye shadow, overly plump cheeks and lips, and he seems to be invoking a sad, old-timey club singer trying to reclaim their youth for patrons. And speaking of the patrons, they’re all covered in elaborate masquerade masks that block their facial expressions. Not that it matters. No one reacts or moves to anything The Weeknd does—from using one man’s head as an elbow rest to spraying them with champagne.

Later, one mask-free woman emerges in the crowd, and The Weeknd pulls her onstage for a dance. Only things take an even darker turn when he pulls out a pistol and begins waiving it around, at one point giving it to her to shoot him with, and at other moments taking aim at random people in the crowd. As the performer walks on tables and kicks over platters it’s all very reminiscent of The Joker, and sure enough he wraps the video by pointing the weapon to his temple and pulling the trigger. Confetti then spills from the gun and the crowd finally reacts with a gasp.

And here you wondered how he could possibly top his video for “Blinding Lights,” which was Spotify’s most-streamed song of 2020.

Shortly after the Cliqua-directed “Save Your Tears” video dropped, some fans shared their theories online that the crowd in question is The Weeknd (aka Abel Tesfaye) throwing subtle shade at the Grammys, where he somehow—and controversially—failed to secure a single nomination for the 2021 show, which was recently postponed to March 14 (even Drake and Elton John wondered what was up with that move). But that wasn’t the only reason The Weeknd started trending online following the video’s release.

Some fans actually wondered whether the performer had permanently altered his face (he did not), while others speculated that Tesfaye purposely hired an actor who looks like his ex, Selena Gomez, to play the woman in the video.

So far, Tesfaye has not addressed any of the speculation or revealed whether he was in fact dragging the Grammys once again. There are many artists out there who prefer to let their music videos speak for itself though, because they like their fans to make their own connections and interpretations. Whatever The Weeknd’s intent was here, one thing is for sure: he certainly has fans wondering what the heck he’s going to do next. 

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