The Weeknd explains controversial meaning behind “Blinding Lights”

Jerald JohnsonIn a new cover story with Esquire, The Weeknd breaks down the meaning of his latest hit, “Blinding Lights” — but he doesn’t advise you take the lyrics to heart.“’Blinding Lights’ [is about] how you want to see some…

By ABC Audio on August 25, 2020

Jerald JohnsonIn a new cover story with Esquire, The Weeknd breaks down the meaning of his latest hit, “Blinding Lights” — but he doesn’t advise you take the lyrics to heart.

“’Blinding Lights’ [is about] 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,” he explains.

He adds, “I don’t want to ever promote drunk driving, but that’s what the dark undertone is.”

The Weeknd, birth name Abel Tesfaye, also explains that some of the more explicit lyrics he’s known for are born out of him playing a character.

“It’s definitely a character,” he says of his Weeknd persona. “When you hear some of the drastic stuff, you can tell. I mean, that’s why it’s tricky, because it is me singing the words; it is my writing.”

“It’s like you want people to feel a certain way. You want them to feel angry. You want them to feel sad. You want them to feel. It’s never, like, my intent to offend anybody.”

Esquire’s September issue is out digitally now and available at retail outlets by September 1.

By Andrea Tuccillo
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

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