The Canadian pop-R&B artist, born Abel Tesfaye, gave fans a sneak peek at his new collaboration with Brazilian singer Anitta during his concert at Rio de Janeiro's Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos on Sunday night (April 26).
In a post on his Instagram, The Weeknd shared a clip of the track, which received its world premiere at the show. Animated visuals — directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike — were played in the background, seemingly depicting the Scarborough, Ontario native while flashes of neon lights, bloody brawls and romance fill the screen.
The song, which appears to be titled “Rio,” features a bubbling bassline and a thumping beat with soft R&B vocals from The Weeknd. During the clip, he stood on stage and jammed out to the song, which reunites him with Brazil's own Anitta, who appeared alongside him onstage later in the show.
“Rio” marks their second release together, following “São Paulo” in 2024. Similar to last night’s experience, the pair previewed the track during The Weeknd’s show in São Paulo that same year.
“Anitta is a great friend. What she sent was so awesome that we created the song,” The Weeknd praised in an exclusive interview with Billboard Brasil.“We knew it was too special to just play on stage. We saw great potential in the song and found the beat, which is the heart of the show."
That standout track served as part of the lead-up to The Weeknd’s latest album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, the following year, closing out the trilogy of albums including 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM. “São Paulo” peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, remaining on the chart for 16 weeks.
Meanwhile, Hurry Up Tomorrow secured the singer his seventh No. 1 album in Canada, sitting at the top for two weeks.
advertisement
As of writing, the track has no release date. For many fans, it’s unclear whether the track will be released under his birth name or The Weeknd. Last year, the singer shared he would be retiring his persona, following the release of Hurry Up Tomorrow.
Later this week, The Weeknd returns to São Paulo for back-to-back nights on his global tour, which has become the biggest trek of his career. It recently surpassed over one billion dollars in grosses worldwide, making it the top-earning tour by a male solo artist in history, according to a statement from Tesfaye’s team.
According to Billboard Boxscore, the show’s attendance set records, too, making Tesfaye the only genre act and only Black artist to sell over five million tickets on a single tour.
