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The Weeknd's ascension from darknet rumor to international superstardom is a testament to the power of his genre-bending sound and reluctant emotional honesty. Not a trend follower, but a trend redefiner, over and over again, blending R&B textures with shiny pop and synth-friendly production into a dark, mass-market look.
His hooks are catchy, to be sure, but they ring true, probing the intractability of desire, disconnection, and the costly price of celebrity. Whether he's singing a slow-burning admission or an arena-friendly anthem,
The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, possesses a peculiar talent for hitting the emotional undertow of contemporary existence. The Weeknd's hits aren't merely hits, they're milestones that map his development as an artist and cultural force. Every song represents a new chapter in his life story, from the dark, melancholy sound of his beginning to the glossy, widescreen ambition of his later work.
What makes them all connect is his unflinching exposure and sonic risk-taking, transmuting personal demons and ephemeral highs into universal anthems. As we dissect these single standout tracks, it becomes obvious that Weeknd hasn't merely made songs for the minute, he's designed anthems whose echoes resound long after the date of release.
Songs such as Blinding Lights, Save Your Tears, The Hills, and Earned It are important milestones in The Weeknd's career, each a point at which his sound and vision met monumental cultural relevance.
These tracks and others in his discography have not only taken over airwaves but also played a role in defining the sound of contemporary pop and R&B. Their broad-based acknowledgement speaks to just how pervasive his impact has reached, demonstrating that his music connects far beyond fad or singles performance.
Here are the top 10 The Weeknd's songs of all time
It's no easy feat to condense The Weeknd's enormous discography into a mere ten tracks, considering the number of hits and fan favorites he's produced throughout his career.
But these ten songs are exceptional not only for their popularity but for how they've distilled the spirit of his work, mixing moody textures, genre-bending production, and emotionally naked words into indelible memories.
These are the tracks that have defined eras, topped global charts, and become staples in pop culture. Whether you’ve been a fan since his underground beginnings or discovered him during his stadium-filling prime, these ten songs represent the very best of what The Weeknd has to offer.
Disclaimer: This article contains the writer's opinion. The reader's discretion is advised!
1) Save Your Tears
Released in 2020 in the After Hours package, Save Your Tears emerged as a haunting coming together of heartache and pop sensibility, summarizing unrequited passion versus slick delivery.
Instead of accepting heartache with sorrowful sounds, the song encloses its heartache in sparkling synths and old-school-dipped rhythm, producing a bittersweet tension at once nostalgic and hauntingly euphoric.
The Weeknd's ghostly falsetto floats over the beats, not pleading but observing, icy and tranquil but recognizably bruised. Its accompanying video takes the creepy, dreamlike tone of the After Hours era to its breaking point, with over-featured makeup and lavish sets amplifying concerns about acting, vanity, and emotional disguise.
Save Your Tears struck a chord not because it was catchy, it struck a chord because it coated pain with gloss, which is what we do with our emotions and our current exteriors. This made it one of The Weeknd's most iconic and accepted tracks.
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2) Initiation
Initiation, a standout of The Weeknd's 2011 cycle, is still one of his sonically riskiest and most atmospheric records. The dirty, tight-lidded production gels into a warped, near-dizzied sound that matches the uncomfortable narrative at its center. Instead of romance, the track presents a sullied ultimatum: access to a world that lives by its debasement, isolation, and peer validation.
The vocal contortion, pitch-shifting between spine-tingling lows and vertigo-inducing highs, is less a stylistic choice and more a reflection of the altered state both he and his subject are in. Buried in his early discography, Initiation is easily missed, but it captures the raw, experimental energy that defined Weeknd's early influence.
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3) The Hills
Released in 2015 on Beauty Behind the Madness, The Hills marked a shift for The Weeknd's look and sound, diving headfirst into mystery, temptation, and the psychological costs of fame. Built on a spine-tingling basis of distorted synths and thudding bass, the song exudes danger that is perfectly in line with its lyrical exploration of hidden lives and inner turmoil.
Rather than embracing his world, The Weeknd lays it bare, laying bare the duplicity, irresponsibility, and isolation that simmer beneath the surface.
The title is a sly nod to horror movies, running odd parallels with stories where all is never as it seems. Even visually, the video is another source of tension, photographing him in surreal, nigh-on-nightmarish settings that are a reflection of his inner turmoil.
Chart success notwithstanding, The Hills thrives because of its uncooked vulnerability and filmic intensity, proof that he performs best when he is not afraid to go into the bleaker corners of human existence.
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4) Montreal
Montreal from the Echoes of Silence mixtape is a stunningly beautiful gem of The Weeknd's past work, propelled by one of his best choruses in his entire discography. His voice is both bare and soaring in this number, giving the chorus a primal emotional weight that lingers even after the song has ended.
While production is minimalist in design, the subtle refinement of it serves to reinforce the despondent atmosphere. Lyrically, the song is a depiction of the relationship that did not work out, feeling the longing and regret so prevalent in his songs.
The only reason Montreal feels different among his discography is that he employs French words to begin and conclude it, giving it a unique flavor that differs from the rest of his record.
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5) Earned It
Earned It was a career high for The Weeknd, balancing his bold trademark with cleaner, more cinematic elegance. Released on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack in 2015, the song nodded back to his dark, R&B origins with sumptuous, orchestral sounds. Its sultry, erotic tempo, full string accompaniment, and The Weeknd's smooth falsetto form a sensual, almost spiritual atmosphere.
The lyrics, treading the tightrope of admiration and control, mirror the complicated interactions of the film's themes, remembering that intimacy needs to be worked for, not given. This is supported by the rising musical passion of the song.
Documented by its trashy black-and-white musical video with scandalous bondage- and burlesque-inspired images, Earned It not only dominated the listener's attention but opened doors for Weeknd's even more progressive development, such as having his hard-around-the-edges indie idol wedged snugly up in the front spot for most observers to consider.
The song even earned a debut first Oscar nomination, further testifying to itself as being the peak in his releases.
6) Out of Time
Out of Time is an excellent standalone single from The Weeknd's Dawn FM album, launched in 2022, with the perfect ratio of nostalgia and contemporary art. Borrowed from Tomoko Aran's single Midnight Pretenders, released in 1983, the song takes one back to the '80s synth-pop with a thick, atmospheric setup that perfectly syncs with the look of The Weeknd.
The hook is irresistibly contagious, but it's the emotion and passion put into the words that truly bring the song magic. Musically, it's a tale about what could have been and what could have been done to preserve something real, with depth placed into its already catchy tune.
Out of Time not only showcases the emotional depth of Dawn FM but also places the album alongside The Weeknd's greatest and most unified.
7) I Feel It Coming
Released in 2016, I Feel It Coming is The Weeknd's second collaboration with Daft Punk, and it's an ideal mixture of old-school cool and new-school flair. The song is full of laid-back, retro swagger, borrowing from the disco and soft rock of the late '70s and early '80s, and topping it off with The Weeknd's silky smooth vocals and a liberal dose of romance.
While much of his sadder, anguished stuff, this song is a momentary flash of light, favoring communication and constraint over bare need or possession. The lyrics are quiet and an open welcome, conveying vulnerability and acceptability for nearness, which is utterly inconsistent with the possession and longing that are so common to his previous work.
Daft Punk's own distinctive sound is unforgettable, as their electronic skills imbue the song with a smooth, vintage quality that takes the whole experience to a new level. The Weeknd and Daft Punk's vocal harmony is no guest spot, it's a collaboration that makes both shine.
A commercial hit and fan favorite, I Feel It Coming proves that The Weeknd is equally skilled at producing catchy, danceable singles as he is at writing introspective, atmospheric ballads.
8) Kissland
Kissland is a stunning seven-minute ride, broken into two contrasting but perfectly combined parts. The production sounds like a daring leap forward, with an instrumental that sounds both extraterrestrial and ahead of its time.
What really makes the track shine, though, is the sudden dramatic change in the beat halfway through, a surprise move that captures your attention and remains stuck in your head. The second instrumental drop is, in my view, one of the highlights of The Weeknd's entire catalog.
His delivery throughout is gripping, gliding effortlessly along the line between smoothness and intensity, and it's a track that draws you in each time and won't release you. It's the kind of track that clings, drawing you back time and again.
9) Wicked Games
Released on House of Balloons in 2011, Wicked Games was when The Weeknd's own R&B style came into focus. It was unprecedented, with a raw, bare style of narrative that was hauntingly gorgeous and intensely intimate. With minimalist production and a melancholy atmosphere, it induced a sense of self-tormented loneliness, wonderfully capturing The Weeknd's confessional lyrics.
The song delves into love's dark side and the desire, where pain internally is masked with detachment. It is not so much a song as a post-midnight reveal, soaked in regret and self-reflection. There is melancholy and self-awareness in The Weeknd's singing, the emptiness of transitory physical affairs.
At the time, Wicked Games was revolutionary, the antidote to the overly sanitized love ballads of mainstream R&B. It was a precursor to his future work, cementing The Weeknd not only as an artist, but as a singer unashamed to confront the intricacies of human intimacy.
10) Call Out My Name
Call Out My Name is one of The Weeknd's most personal and sorrowful songs, bringing us into his raw emotional terrain. Released in 2018 on My Dear Melancholy, the song returns to melancholy, introspective flavors that marked his earlier work, following the commercial success of Starboy.
Austere production, mournful synths, and ethereal vocals make the song synonymous with the taste of a shattered heart and open wounds. Weeknd's haunting vocals convey the residual hurt of love that was lost too early, with an intense yearning for something that was never provided in full.
The lyrics were taken from his relationship with Selena Gomez, particularly with allusions that have appeared to be aimed at her kidney transplant. The actual strength of the song lies in the way it portrays universal emotions of heartbreak, rejection, and yearning.
By stripping away the bells and whistles of his typical production, The Weeknd brings his voice and the raw emotion behind it front and center, showing that nakedness can be as potent as the arena-ready anthems that originally catapulted him to fame.
The Weeknd's songs contain an array of sentiments and experiences ranging from the joy of fame to the extremes of sadness. Not only does every song feature his own blend of R&B, pop, and electronic styles, but it also reflects carefully considered themes addressed to people across the globe in every part of the world.
With a discography that ranges from sorrowful ballads to electric anthems, his work has gone on to shape modern pop and R&B to the present day, testament to his enduring legacy within the genre. The Weeknd's ability to reconcile raw emotion and innovative production has made his songs timeless and universally applicable.
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