Hip Hop/Rap
Live review: The Weeknd blows the roof off Wembley with explosive five‑night finale
The Weeknd closed out his Wembley Stadium residency with a jaw‑dropping, high‑octane show that blended blockbuster‑level staging with a career‑spanning, 38‑track masterclass in performance.
The Weeknd closed his ambitious five-night After Hours Til Dawn tour residency at Wembley Stadium in spectacular, cinematic fashion on Thursday (19.08.26) evening.
From flamethrower-like pyrotechnics and club-ready strobe lights to eye-popping firework explosions, an army of cloaked dancers and creating a real-life House Of Balloons, no expense was spared when it came to the production side of things.
And that’s without mentioning the staging itself: with cross-like walkways darting out from the centre of the stage, where a giant laser-shooting gold statue stood and followed his every move, there was plenty of space for Abel Tesfaye to get up close with the 90,000 fans in the crowd.
Scattered throughout the show, these comparatively intimate moments ensured those with general admission tickets could be within touching distance of their idol as well as attendees who had forked out for spaces in the golden circle.
Not only is Tesfaye one of the best singers of his generation – the note he held at the end of I Was Never There was particularly jaw-dropping – he's effortlessly charismatic in his command of the stage too.
Whether he was amping everyone up (a bouncing Take My Breath) or conducting them a Capella (a belting One Of The Girls), his tireless energy during the two-hour performance put some artists of his calibre to shame.
A 38-song setlist (albeit with some interludes and shorter renditions) might read as tiresome or overlong on paper, but that certainly wasn’t the case.
Instead, it was an incredible display of his versatility as an artist who is now nearly two decades into his career: from the sci-fi voyage of Starboy to billions-streaming TikTok smash Blinding Lights and plenty of throwbacks to his earlier albums, all of which were beefed up by crunching guitar riffs and pounding drums.
One fan who we got chatting to in the merch queue had been to all five shows and said they were the “best nights of his life”.
As The Weeknd said farewell to London for the last time this tour, the deafening screams made it clear that many felt the same way.
Rating: 9/10
