The Weeknd is taking our breaths away for two extra minutes on the extended version of his latest single “Take My Breath,” which he has released today. You can check it out below.
At the start of the month, the superstar previewed the pulsating synths of the single in a short clip that embraced his new musical era categorized as “the dawn is coming.” He later shared a longer snippet of “Take My Breath” with his own vocals in a Tokyo Olympics promo before eventually putting it out on August 6 via XO/Republic Records.
Now, The Weeknd is drawing out a longer “Breath” for his XO fans to relish in on the 5-minute 51-second version of the song, which originally ran for 3 minutes 40 seconds, by extending the “Oh-oh, oh-oh”s of the intro and bridge over the nostalgic ’80s beat.
The hitmaker also extended another record recently: His “Blinding Lights” smash has stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 87 weeks, which ties the 2012-2014 run of Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive.”
“Take My Breath” is the lead single from his upcoming fifth studio album, following his Billboard 200-topping LP After Hours. The Weeknd previously announced “the dawn is coming” at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards in May. “I just want to say the After Hours are done and the dawn is coming,” he said during his acceptance speech after winning the Top Hot 100 Song award for “Blinding Lights.”
“Take My Breath” marks The Weeknd’s latest material since the release of his critically-acclaimed album After Hours released in March of 2020. After Hours is The Weeknd’s fourth No. 1 album in the United States and is certified double platinum by the RIAA with over 15.7 billion streams. In addition to the United States, After Hours topped the charts in 20 additional nations, including Canada and the United Kingdom.
“It’ll be the best project he’s ever put out,” wrote Mark Anthony Green on The Weeknd’s new music in the September 2021 issue of GQ. “It became nearly impossible to find something else to listen to. Everything else sounded soft. Or didn’t groove enough. Or felt too happy. Or too sad. It was clear to me that this isn’t just the album The Weeknd has always wanted to make; it’s the album we’ve always wanted him to make.”
Listen to the best of The Weeknd on Apple Music and Spotify.
