Aaliyah and The Weeknd are set to appear together on a new collaborative single, “Poison.”
The team-up is set for release tomorrow (December 17) via Blackground Records 2.0 and Empire ahead of a posthumous studio album by Aaliyah, which is due at a later date.
The Weeknd sampled the late R&B star’s 2001 track “Rock The Boat” on his 2011 Trilogy song “What You Need”. The sample was finally heard on the recording when Abel Tesfaye reissued his House Of Balloons mixtape to mark its 10th anniversary in March.
Earlier this year, Aaliyah’s former label Blackground Records – which was founded by her uncle Barry Hankerson – announced plans to release the singer’s entire back catalogue on streaming platforms as part of a new partnership with independent label EMPIRE.
Hankerson subsequently released a statement, writing: “Thank you to all of her many fans for keeping [Aaliyah’s] music alive.
Aaliyah died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001. She was 22 years old.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd will release a new collaboration with FKA Twigs called ‘Tears In The Club’ later today, December 16. He’s also recently joined forces with Post Malone (on ‘One Right Now’), Swedish House Mafia (‘Moth To A Flame’) and Rosalía (‘La Fama’).
Back in August, Abel Tesfaye shared the first taste of his forthcoming fifth studio album with ‘Take My Breath’. Last month, he said his new record was almost complete, revealing that the “only thing missing is a couple [of] characters that are key to the narrative”.
Earlier this week, Vevo, the world’s leading music video network, released part two of its annual year-end look back on music video viewership. Both worldwide and in the U.S., The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” tops the list with 615M views globally, and 102.9M views in the U.S.
Released at the top of the year, “Save Your Tears” popularity was fueled by The Weeknd’s massively successful Superbowl performance, a slew of Billboard Music Awards, Juno Awards, and BRIT Awards wins and more, resulting in a standout year for the star.
Listen to the best of The Weeknd on Apple Music and Spotify.