The Weeknd reflects on writing records about his split with Selena Gomez.
The “Blinding Lights” crooner has been infamously private about his romantic life but cared enough to share his feelings about his months-long relationship with the Disney darling for Esquire’s upcoming September issue release.
In the profile, the Grammy-winning musician, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, opened up on what it was like writing 2018’s My Dear Melancholy, a project which has more or less been speculated to be about Gomez, with whom he broke up after about 10 months together. The EP consisted of several heartbroken ballads containing lyrics that seemed to call his former flame to mind, most notably on its leader, “Call Out My Name,” on which The Weeknd cries, “I said I didn't feel nothing, baby, but I lied/ I almost cut a piece of myself for your life.”
Looking back, The Weeknd describes writing about “that situation” as something “cathartic.”
“The reason why it was so short is like, I think I just had nothing else to say on this . . . whatever . . . . It was just like this cathartic piece of art,” he told Esquire. “And yeah, it was short, because that’s all I had to say on this situation.”
When asked whether penning through that experience made him feel better, he responded, “Yeah, of course. I mean, that would have sucked if I didn’t.”
Admissions aside, the Canadian artist remained commendably quiet on name-dropping exactly “who” My Dear Melancholy was written about, concluding tersely, “No comment.”
Read The Weeknd's full profile here.
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