The Weeknd x The Dawn FM Experience review: 30 minutes of great singing, and nothing more

3/5

Story: The Weeknd’s immersive TV experience for his latest album, Dawn FM - The Weekend x The Dawn FM Experience - features the singer singing a bulk of the songs on it live.

Review: Do not tune in to The latest Amazon Prime Video special with The Weeknd expecting a documentary-style feature peppered with some of his biggest hits. This 30-minute special is a live performance by the singer of songs from his latest album, Dawn FM. Brilliant vocals on songs like Dawn FM, Gasoline, How Do I Make You Love Me, Take My Breath, Sacrifice, Out of time, Is There Someone Else, Less Than Zero and Phantom Regret (featuring Jim Carrey) is the only takeaway from this, given that seeing him kitted out in full prosthetics as an old man can get tiring after a point, however big a fan you are.

Ahead of the release of the special, the singer was quoted in a press release as saying, "I'm ecstatic to partner with Amazon to premiere the most elaborate live TV special I've ever done. Welcome to the next phase of 'Dawn FM' – a purgatory otherworld where live performance, theatre and performance art collide for a night out at the club."

But then, with the world still in recovery mode since the pandemic, this is perhaps the next best thing to a live concert, so, die-hard The Weeknd fans may just enjoy head banging and singing along to these songs. The official description of the special describes it as a theatrical performance event that takes audiences to an “unnerving and moody world.” Unnerving and moody world? Meh! Not really. It’s like being out in the club with The Weeknd. But is that good enough?

Verdict: Big The Weeknd in da house, but I have to admit, I wasn’t enamoured by this special. Once I figured that he was just going from song-to-song and there was nothing else to look forward to, I had the special playing in the background, while I got some other work done.