0:03- The Weeknd (Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) is seen laughing in pain as his entire face and mouth is covered in blood. This imagery is intriguing for the viewers because it makes them question why his face is covered in blood, and how he got to this point. This also pushes the viewers to keep watching.
0:24- The title of the song is called Blinding Lights, and in the opening scene we see Abel walking down the Vegas strips, as he is surrounded by the blinding lights of the casino and clubs. The lights of the billboards make it impossible to see, therefore he’s seen wearing sunglasses.
2:06- Here, we are introduced to the main girl, who resembles Abel’s ex-girlfriend Bella Hadid. Previously, Abel sings, “I’m going through withdrawals / You don’t even have to do too much / You can turn me on with just a touch, baby.” In this scene, we see that he is so mesmerized by the singer that he begins to float in the air as she waves her hand. I will assume that this girl is a reference to Bella Hadid mainly because they both have similar facial structure, with both of them having high cheekbone and the Cat-eye feature. Assuming this girl is a reference to Bella, we can conclude that he’s talking about the impact she has had on him. This conclusion isn’t too far fetched mainly because their relationship did last about 4 years.
2:35- “I said, ooh, I’m blinded by the lights/ No, I can’t sleep until I feel your touch.” Here, Abel’s is seen speeding through the streets in high. This alludes to his various addictions to drugs, which he mentions in other songs, which pushes him to do reckless things. In his song Faith, he writes, “When I go missing, you know where to find me /Driving down the boulevard is blinding /Always blinded by the desert lights and I’m alive when.” Faith is number 8 on the After Hours album, right before Blinding Lights. Faith is entirely about his addictions and how it ruined his relationship, while Blinding Lights is more about what happens during his relapses.So in this scene in Blinding Lights we can see he is referencing himself driving down the boulevard, when he’s experiencing another high. The second part of this verse, “No, I can’t sleep until I feel your touch,” alludes to their breakup.
3:06- In the beginning of the music video, we saw Abel’s face covered in blood, but we weren’t given an explanation as to how he got there. This intrigued us to continue watching the video. Here, in 3:06, we get our answer. Abel was beat up by the security guards for getting too close to the singer, who then disappears. This can reference that he was a danger to the singer. From this, we can also conclude that maybe he was the toxic one in his relationship with Bella, which resulted in their breakup.
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This song is great and it is really interesting to see how his team used Tiktok to market it. That dance was literally all I saw on tiktok for weeks.
Hey Ikra! Very insightful notes on the song! It’s amazing to think that artists can create such vivid pictures to describe moments in their lives. In this example, The Weeknd’s breakup with Bella Hadid. I know when I went through a breakup, it did not seem as emphatic as The Weeknd’s, but that is why I am not a songwriter.
Hi Ikra, this song is a great choice. I like the hook in the beginning with the blood, something you wouldn’t expect from a happy, fancy song like this. I think you made a great reference to Bella Hadid and followed it through.
I meant dancy* not fancy, haha.
Hello Ikra this song was a great choice. I enjoyed that you where able to get connections and correlation between another song made by The Weekend. How they all play a rile to tell a bigger picture.
This was one of the first songs realized from his last album, not a while back. I remember hearing it on the radio, while I was driving, I do not remember if I liked it, but what I do remember is I was watching the weekends performance at the oscars on YouTube and “Blinding lights” cam up as a suggestion. I watched it but like other music videos, I did not pay much attention. So this was informative. Thank you
Hey Ikra! This song is my favorite song out of all of the Weeknd’s songs so I’m glad someone actually interpreted the meaning for this song. I was quite confused about its meaning when I first saw it, but I understand more about it thanks to this blog you made. I thought the meaning for him saying “I’m blinded by the lights” was him referring to fame which may have blinded him to change his way of being, it now would make more sense if he was referring to a previous relationship instead of fame.
Author
At first, I thought he was talking about the fame too, but once I heard the whole album in order it all made sense. And then I had to read up about their four year long relationship to connect all the dots. Definitely listen to Faith and In Your Eyes if you get a chance.
I think you did an amazing job, I wish you were able to link the video. But regardless of that, you were able to describe the scenes so well that I completely forgot about it. You were able to draw lots of detail from minute moments. Great job!
I heard this song on the radio so much but never looked into it, thanks for the insight. It has so much context that I didn’t know about. I just wish you had linked the music video instead of the official audio as that would make it easier to follow your notes with the video.
Author
Hey Matin,
Thank you for telling me about the link. I updated so the music video is up.
Hello Ikra, Blinding Lights is a song I hear a lot but I never really personally listened to it. I liked how you pointed out the use of blood to capture the audience and draw them into the video. We see a lot of artists connecting their music to their personal life. Pointing out the connections is something I wished I did for my blog. The connections were interesting to see since I don’t really know much about his personal life. The ending at 3:06 was a good conclusion to draw from.