Wake Me Up (The Weeknd song)

Last updated

"Wake Me Up"
Song by the Weeknd featuring Justice
from the album Hurry Up Tomorrow
ReleasedJanuary 31, 2025
Length5:08
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)

"Wake Me Up" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd featuring French musical duo Justice. It was released through XO and Republic Records as the opening track from his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow , on January 31, 2025. The song was produced by the Weeknd and Justice themselves, Mike Dean and Johnny Jewel; all five of them wrote the song along with Belly, Vincent Taurelle and Rod Temperton, who received a posthumous songwriting credit, due to the song's interpolation of Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

Contents

Composition and lyrics

On "Wake Me Up", the Weeknd explores themes of existentialism and facing reality as he reflects on inner struggles. [1] Roisin O'Connor of The Independent saw the song as "a scene-setting moment for what, it soon emerges, is the Canadian artist's most ambitious project to date – a feature film-length album that supposedly serves as the final chapter for his enigmatic alter ego The Weeknd". [2] The song starts off slow and then gets upbeat, in which the fast-paced instrumental is reminiscent of the music from Michael Jackson's fifth studio album, Off the Wall (1979) and the song "Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin' (Too Good to Be True)" by Jermaine Jackson. [3] [4]

Critical reception

Writing for Clash , Robin Murray described "Wake Me Up" as "a stellar opener" from Hurry Up Tomorrow. [5] In contrast, Neil McCormick, Andrew Perry, and Poppie Platt described the song as a "doomy opening". [6] Carl Lamarre of Billboard ranked "Wake Me Up" as the twelfth best song on the album as he acknowledged the Weeknd's love for Michael Jackson's music and the "Thriller" sample, describing the song as "a five-minute exhibition of [the] Weeknd’s exploration of legacy, reality, and disillusionment" and "[The] Weeknd's deftly executes on the pop-synth intro with sizzling precision". [7]

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References

  1. "Hurry Up Tomorrow By The Weeknd: Album Review". January 31, 2025.
  2. O'Connor, Roisin (January 31, 2025). "On Hurry Up Tomorrow, The Weeknd delivers a spectacular final chapter in his 'After Hours' trilogy". The Independent. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  3. Levine, Nick (January 31, 2025). "The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow review: stadium-filling superstar prepares to move on". NME . Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  4. Hodgkinson, Will (January 31, 2025). "The Weeknd: Hurry Up Tomorrow review — strangely suppressed and anaesthetised". The Times . Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  5. Murray, Robin (January 31, 2025). "First Take: The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow". Clash . Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  6. McCormick, Neil; Perry, Andrew; Platt, Poppie (January 31, 2025). "The Weeknd's epic Hurry Up Tomorrow is one of the most depressing albums in pop history". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  7. Saponara, Michael; Lamarre, Carl (January 31, 2025). "Every Song From The Weeknd's 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' Album Ranked: Critic's Picks". Billboard . Retrieved January 31, 2025.