The Weeknd has no features on his new album After Hours (which is out today), but in a way, he has brought somebody else into the fold. Yesterday, he declared that he was dedicating the album to a fan named Lance, who recently passed away.
The Weeknd superfans knew Lance as the person behind XO Podcast (which re-branded on Twitter to After Hours Podcast in light of the new album), and The Weeknd himself has been aware of Lance for years, as he mentioned him in a tweet back in 2015.
"i don't got much but I got faith in this xo shit" – @XOPodcast
— Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd) June 28, 2015
Somebody who appears to have lived with Lance shared the news of Lance’s passing, and noted in their post, “mental illness and addiction are a f*cking son of a b*tch.” They also wrote, “lance had a genuine respect for abel and it literally breaks my heart he passed away the same week After Hours is coming out. he waited so long for it. he would truly want all of u to listen to it in his name and not be sad for him but celebrate his name.”
The Weeknd shared that post and wrote, “What ?????,” followed by a broken heart emoji. He added in a follow-up tweet, “RIP LANCE aka XOPODCAST. you were one of the true original backbones of my XO fan base. Can’t believe i’m finding out about this today. I’m dedicating After Hours to you, my friend.”
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1240712071106289664
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1240713120869310464
After Hours is out now via Republic Records. Get it here.
