A lot of things changed in The Weeknd’s life after he and Selena Gomez called it quits on their nearly 10-month relationship in October — including the artistic direction of his latest EP, My Dear Melancholy.
“Prior to Melancholy, I had a whole album written, done,” the “Call Out My Name” singer, 28, said in his new cover story for Time magazine’s Next Generation Leaders issue. “[It] wasn’t melancholy at all because it was a different time in my life. … It was very upbeat — it was beautiful.”
But the heartbreak that came after The Weeknd (real name Abel Tesfaye) and Gomez’s split led him to scrap the project altogether.
“I don’t want to perform something that I don’t feel,” he said, adding that fans will “never” hear the album.
Us Weekly exclusively revealed ahead of the March 30 release of My Dear Melancholy that the Toronto native had been working tirelessly on the six-track EP. “He’s been in the studio pretty much nonstop, especially the past few months after his breakup with Selena Gomez,” a source told Us at the time.
The Weeknd declined to discuss the particulars of his separation from the “Back to You” songstress, 25, in his Time profile (“I don’t want to open that Pandora’s box, talking about relationships”), but he did admit that the recording process that followed helped him cope.
“It’s therapeutic,” he told the publication. “You want to get it out. It’s like you close a chapter.”
The Grammy winner may be moving on, though. A source told Us in December that he is “still totally in love” with Bella Hadid, whom he dated from 2015 to 2016 prior to his romance with Gomez. Since then, he and the model, 21, have been spotted getting cozy and making out on multiple occasions, most recently at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival in France.
“They know it’s all about timing,” a source told Us in February. “When they are both ready to get back together, they will.”
