On April 23, The Weeknd and Ariana Grande released a remix of the former’s hit track “Save Your Tears” from his 2020 record-breaking album
After Hours.
Rumors of a remix to the Canadian singer’s hit single had been floating around for a while, and on April 19 he shared what appeared to be a snippet of the song with new vocals from Grande.
The “Save Your Tears” remix marks the third collaboration between Ariana Grande and The Weeknd in the past seven years. They first worked together in 2014 on “Love Me Harder,” a song from Grande’s second studio album,
My Everything.
The two then worked on “off the table,” the fifth track on Grande’s sixth studio album
Positions
(2020). Each of these songs has been a hit. The original “Save Your Tears” reached the top five in twenty countries and the music video released in January has surpassed 300 million views and three million likes.
In “Save Your Tears,” The Weeknd seems to reminisce about past mistakes in his on-again, off-again relationship with model Bella Hadid. The song opens with the lyrics, “I saw you dancing in a crowded room / You look so happy when I’m not with you / But then you saw me, caught you by surprise / A single teardrop falling from your eye.” The singer hints at a rift between him and a partner who looks happier without him, only to become emotional when they cross paths by chance. Later on in the song, The Weeknd mentions feeling guilty about breaking someone’s heart “like someone did to mine.” Fans speculate that this “someone” is in reference to Selena Gomez, who broke up with The Weeknd to reconcile with her ex, Justin Bieber.
Grande adds a husky version of her own ‘Save Your Tears’ in the remix: “Met you once under a Pisces moon / I kept my distance cause I know that you / Don’t like when I’m with nobody else / I couldn’t help it, I put you through hell.” The song’s release was accompanied by an animated video designed by Jack Brown, which continues the gory and surreal narrative of The Weeknd’s music videos for
After Hours
by taking the story into sci-fi territory. The music video shows The Weeknd building Grande in a factory, constructing her as his love interest. It then ends with him standing next to Grande packaged as if she’s a life-sized Barbie doll.
The Weeknd has had one of his biggest years following the release of
After Hours
, featuring hits like “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights.” The latter became the first song ever to spend an entire year in the Top 10 of the U.S. Hot 100 Singles chart. Despite controversially being snubbed at this year’s Grammy Awards — which he has since said he will now boycott — The Weeknd has hinted that he might have one last surprise for fans before he concludes his
After Hours
era. The Weeknd also recently announced plans to donate one million dollars to help hunger relief efforts in Ethiopia as conflict continues in the country.
