The Weeknd, Snai La Maura Racecourse, Milan

A sunny Milan afternoon as 80,000 spectators begin to flock to the Snai La Maura Racecourse to attend the second Italian performance of Canadian superstar The Weeknd’s acclaimed After Hours Til Dawn Tour. It is immediately clear that for many the view will not be the best, the depressions in the ground prevent many from seeing satisfactorily (also thanks to cell phones constantly raised for filming) and the stage, and a very long, but too low transition that cuts the audience in half. Complaints and nervousness due to warmth are felt immediately, slightly relieved from the beginning of two DJ set discoveries.
The first is producer Mike Dean (Kanye West, Travis Scott, Madonna and, of course, The Weeknd) trying to handle cinematic and near-apocalyptic sounds (including “The Lure” basic subject from the recent and critically panned TV series Idol) that fit well with the scene’s impressive set design: a metallic and ghostly ruined city that is immediately recognizable as the Empire State Building and Toronto’s CN Tower. The second set instead of Kaytranada (fresh joint publication with rapper Aminé), is clearly cooler and sit backwhich refreshes the audience with the onset of sunset.

Exactly at 9 o’clock, like Abel Tesfaye, alias

The Weeknd finally takes the stage to a roar; he is dressed in head-to-toe white and wears a mask inspired by that of the deceased. rappers MF Doom, which he will remove only after the first half of the concert. sound powerful and percussive, dominated by drums and guitar, there is still too much brightness to appreciate the play of light, but it does not matter, the choice starts with the most poignant moments from the latest album “Dawn FM”, or “Take My Breathe” and “Sacrifice ” immediately captivate the audience, mostly very young, and open the first part, characterized by sonority. disco funk which culminates in the now classic “Can’t Feel My Face”.
The Weeknd is not exactly a stage animal wing Prince conveys more sympathy than sensuality and aggression, but his voice is powerful and flexible and does everything to constantly excite the audience. It wouldn’t even be necessary, they’re all dancing at her feet and singing every song, la. ladder actually it is greatest hits who makes generous use of his entire discography, and his music, not himself, is the real star of the evening.

As darkness falls Set list start focusing more on the moments r’n’b his repertoire, which also includes chorus of his most famous collaborations with Drake, Future and Kanye West. Each challenge is highlighted by breathtaking plays of light that create different and increasingly impressive scenarios each time. Then the action moves to the middle of the podium, on which stands a streamlined futuristic totem, cyborgs with feminine features around which an unsettling corps de ballet revolves, completely wrapped in white veils, like a multitude of adoring vestals. During this pagan holiday, the sharp “Hills” will stand out above all, during which the city behind it will literally burn down, the foul-mouthed “Often” andinstant classic Starboy, but it will also be interesting to hear many people sing in unison (and perhaps unconsciously) the borrowed chorus “It’s a happy home, We’re happy here in a happy home” from “House Of Balloons”.
Especially the sensational song “After Hours” title track In his most successful album, the line-up approaches the most melancholic part of the evening. The Weeknd makes his way to the end of the catwalk where an imposing inflatable moon dominates and, like in the most classic serenade, gives Jacksonian

the ballad “Out Of Time” (“That’s my favorite song,” he’ll say as he introduces it), the equally elegant ninety piece “I Feel It Coming” and the recently returned spotlight “Die For You” that sends many girls present. Then the atmosphere gradually becomes less romantic: a stripped-down “Wicked Games” (his very first single) performed amid dizzying pillars of light, and “Call Out My Name” made even more melodramatic by the tortured high-pitched synths.

It’s time to get the audience dancing again and the concert culminates in a hat-trick knock out: “Save Your Tears” practically becomes an impressive karaoke, and “Less Than Zero” even manages to involve even more than the famous single that preceded it. The now immortal “Blinding Lights” has finally become the apotheosis of choirs, lasers and madness.
It would be the perfect ending to a flawless show, but The Weeknd comes out for an encore without a break or leaving the stage. He climbs one of the set buildings and, in the simplest moment of the entire show, hands out his latest hit “Creepin'” with Metro Boomin, the most recent “Popular”, the flagship song from the “The Idol” soundtrack, and the new chorale “In Your Eyes with an 80s saxophone. When it’s time to say goodbye to 80,000, the party starts again and pyrotechnic lights to the euphoric dance of “Moth To A Flame”, his collaboration with the Swedish House Mafia.

Thus ends finally, after an hour and fifty minutes, very tightly and without interruptions, a concert photographing the state of grace of an artist who, in a little over ten years, has managed to constantly surpass himself, in contact with different genres, but always with his recognizable imprint. and to make coexist convincingly both the most demanding audience of the beginning and the more fashionable, who came later, as soon as the brightest pop stars

they were able to do. Only bitterness remains in the mouth for one location not quite suitable for celebrating an event of this magnitude.