The Weeknd feels his own face again.
In a new ad for Pepsi ahead of his big Super Bowl breakup appearance, the 30-year-old singer chose to drop his cryptic bandages and CGI plastic surgery, showing off his real face for the first time in a while.
The one-minute teaser for the show, on February 7, shows a montage of fans enjoying his song “Blinding Lights,” including a grocery store worker and a pool cleaner dancing on his tune like no one else is watching.
At the end, The Weeknd flashes a smile for a security guard from the toll booth that was interrupted after the hit.
This is the first time in a while that fans have seen his real face since The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, wears bandages as part of an aesthetic for his latest album. (And as Variety noted, this is the first Pepsi ad to appear before Super Bowl Sunday, airing on CBS, and the first time the artist has participated in one.)
Recently, The Weeknd released a music video for his new song “Save Your Tears”, with some disturbing changes to his face – similar to extreme plastic surgery. “But then you see me, surprise you,” he sings aptly in the video in which he displays a thinned (and crooked) nose, swollen cheeks, swollen lips, surgical scars and other horrible new features.
Fans speculated it was shady not to be nominated at the 2021 Grammy Awards, but other fans saw it as a disciple for ex-girlfriend Bella Hadid.
Fans, however, should not be alarmed. The disturbing new look was achieved by prosthetics and CGI. He previously collaborated with Prosthetic Renaissance, a makeup effects studio that gets credit for the transformation on social media.
The Weeknd uses his face as late as a statement, including a battered aesthetic in the short film “After Hours,” which has the same name as his most recent album. The music video for “Blinding Lights” features his bloodied and bruised goblet after bending – a look he redesigned for the MTV Video Music Awards in August. And in November, he covered his again battered face with surgical gown to accept an award on stage at the American Music Awards.
As for Super Bowl LV, it’s unclear what face The Weeknd is going to show.