Blinding Lights
"Blinding Lights" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd, from his fourth studio album, After Hours. The song was released through XO and Republic Records on November 29, 2019, as the album's second single. It is a synth-pop, electropop, new wave, and synthwave track, which lyrically addresses the importance of a partner, and the desire to see them at night. It was written by the Weeknd, Max Martin, Oscar Holter, Belly, and DaHeala, while being produced by the former three.
"Blinding Lights" received universal acclaim by music journalists upon release, with many noting its aesthetic, as well as its callback to the music of the 1980s. The song was a commercial success, topping the record charts in over 40 countries, including his native Canada, making it his most successful single to date. In the United States, "Blinding Lights" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four non-consecutive weeks, earning his fifth number one in the country. It became the song with the most weeks spent in the top five and top ten and the first song to hold a spot in the top ten for an entire year.
It was the longest-charting song in history for a short period of time, remaining on it for a total of 90 weeks, and was named as the chart's best-performing song of all time on November 23, 2021. It was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and seven times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, it was the best-selling global single of 2020 and the best-selling song overall since 2020 by stream equivalent units. On Spotify, it is the most streamed song of all time, and the first song to surpass four and five billion streams.
Anton Tammi directed the song's music video, which was filmed over a four-day period shot in the night. Inspired by films such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Joker, and Casino, it depicts the Weeknd speeding through a city, after getting beaten by bouncers and being forced on the run. "Blinding Lights" was performed on television shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Saturday Night Live, his headlining set at the Super Bowl LV halftime show, and was included on the set list for his After Hours til Dawn Tour. It received several awards and nominations, winning Song of the Year at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards and Juno Awards of 2021.
Background and development
In November 2018, the Weeknd announced at a concert that he was working on his fourth studio album, tentatively referred to as "Chapter VI".After a five-month social media hiatus, the singer-songwriter returned to Instagram on November 20, 2019, and posted six days later on November 26, 2019. He previously announced a project referred to as Chapter VI in June 2019. On November 24, 2019, a Mercedes-Benz commercial first aired on German TV featuring a clip of "Blinding Lights". It shows the Weeknd driving a Mercedes-Benz EQC SUV and asking the system to play his new song. The full-length version of the commercial premiered on November 29, alongside the single. In the days after, he took to social media to announce his return to music with the captions "the fall starts tomorrow night" and "Tonight we start a new brain melting psychotic chapter! Let's go!"
During an interview conducted by Jem Aswad from Variety magazine, the Weeknd discussed his experience working with Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin, saying: "Max and I have become literally the best of friends, but I don't do that with many people. It's not that I can't, but a collaboration is a relationship, it's like a marriage, you've gotta build up to it." In a Billboard interview, the Weeknd expressed his appreciation for music of the 1980s: "I've always had an admiration for the era before I was born. You can hear it as far back as my first mixtape that the '80s — Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cocteau Twins — play such a huge role in my sound. Sometimes it helps me create a new sound and sometimes it's just obvious. I'm just glad the world's into it now." In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Weeknd said that he initially thought that the song would be a commercial failure.
Lyrics and composition
Throughout the song, the Weeknd sings about the rekindling of a relationship and the importance of his partner. He also mentions the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, when he refers to it by its nickname "Sin City" in the pre-chorus. In a profile in Esquire magazine, The Weeknd explained that "'Blinding Lights' how you want to see someone at night, and you're intoxicated, and you're driving to this person and you're just blinded by streetlights, but nothing could stop you from trying to go see that person, because you're so lonely. I don't want to ever promote drunk driving, but that's what the dark undertone is."From its scale-laddering verses to its tension-filled chorus, the song exhibits the polish and "melodic math" for which Max Martin is renowned, according to Chris Molanphy from Slate. The Dorian structure provides a dreamy and euphoric nature to the song while still ultimately resolving to a minor chord. Exclusively in the music video, the song temporarily modulates to Eb Dorian as the beats per minute drops for 3 and a half measures.
Billboard staff writer Frank DiGiacomo assessed its qualities, "The opening drumbeat is a DeLorean time machine|DeLorean back to Michael Jackson's 'Beat It'. The amphetamine synth conjures fond memories of leopard-print-era Rod Stewart's 'Young Turks' — or maybe that other guy with the avian hairdo, Mike Score from A Flock of Seagulls? And isn't that spooky B-movie organ from Rockwell's 'Somebody's Watching Me'? Abel Tesfaye's Drambuie-drenched vocals bathe you in euphoria as you bop around your home in an N-95 mask, punching your fist to the 'Hey!-Hey!-Hey!'s, making a magical and much-needed tonic for troubled times".
The genre of the song is generally described as new wave, synth-pop, synthwave and electropop. Audio engineer Şerban Ghenea says he loved working on the Weeknd's crisp-sounding "Blinding Lights". "It was crossing two worlds to make something new that fits today, sonically. The older folks like it because it's a throwback, and then the kids love it because it's a new thing that they never heard before."
Critical reception
"Blinding Lights" received universal acclaim from critics. It was named as the second best song of 2020 by Billboard and the best song of 2020 by Consequence of Sound; the former highlighted its nostalgic appeal, and the latter praised its "melodic romance waxed over a blockbuster riff". Variety magazine named "Blinding Lights" the Record of the Year: "The Weeknd's 'Blinding Lights' is indisputably one of the landmark songs of 2020. The piece has a crystalline synth hook straight out of 1985. The record has come to symbolize strength and triumphing over adversity." "Blinding Lights" was named one of the best songs of 2019 by Stereogum, where editor Chris DeVille complimented the song's '80s aesthetic and vibe, saying that "the '80s will never die—or, at least, the glamorous neon '80s of our collective imagination".Rolling Stone columnist Kory Grow named "Blinding Lights" as the fourth best song of 2020: "With fuzzy synths and hopscotching drum-machine line, 'Blinding Lights' is the best new wave song this side of Duran Duran. In just three minutes, the Weeknd checks off any number of Eighties pop-song signposts—unanswered phone calls, driving fast just to feel something, lights representing loneliness—but the real magic is how his voice and the song's chiming keyboard line lingers in your head well after he injects new life into the greatest Eighties-steeped lyrical cliché of them all: 'I can't sleep until I feel your touch,'" and editor Jon Dolan praised the "europhile synth-pop-steeped" production, "Blinding Lights" evokes Depeche Mode and the Human League in its lonely-planet luster. David Smyth of Evening Standard also praised the song, calling it a "glorious blast of air punching Eighties synth-pop". Micah Peters from The Ringer selected it as one of the best on the album. The New York Times journalist Lindsay Zoladz named "Blinding Lights" one of the best songs of 2020: "It's a propulsive, modernized bit of '80s pastiche. It's always a blessing when the year's most overplayed pop song happens to be one you wouldn't mind hearing a billion and one times anyway," and editor Jon Caramanica added that "'Blinding Lights' is a sterling song that evokes both an idyllic future and triggers aural sense memories of mega-pop's glory years. 'Blinding Lights' could have been lifted from a found Jazzercise tape from 1986, though the chilly synths have a slightly sinister tinge says a lot about the durability of the Weeknd's early noir—the full commitment to the louche aesthetic he embodied—that even the raging centrist popularity of 'Blinding Lights' can't disinter it."
Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian named "Blinding Lights" one of the best songs of 2020: "It's a titanic pop production from backroom genius Max Martin, who seems to pay homage to his fellow Scandinavians a-ha with the peppy gated drums. Abel Tesfaye himself shows he can slip between genres casually as he does the lovers in his songs, notching up another wedding disco classic." When describing the Weeknd's ode to '80s music, Nick Levine of BBC News named "Blinding Lights" one of the best songs of 2020: "Co-written and co-produced with Swedish songwriting genius Max Martin, its synth-pop shimmer manages to feel retro and contemporary at the same time—a tricky thing to pull off. Still, the key to its enduring popularity could lie in its ambiguity. Though 'Blinding Lights' explosive chorus is one of the year's most familiar and uplifting, there's a dash of darkness baked in that keeps things interesting." Editor Makael Wood from Los Angeles Times named "Blinding Lights" one of the best songs of 2020: "The Weeknd's throwback synth-pop smash was so ubiquitous this year that you couldn't avoid hearing it even when you weren't going anywhere. One aspect that kept it from wearing out its welcome: a crisp tempo just a few ticks faster than you're always expecting."