Sexy, mysterious, anxious, and leather-clad in a cold city full of neon lights – The Weeknd’s new 80s inspired music video for ‘Is There Someone Else’ is a dream-like maze where masked figures search for gorgeous women that are out of reach.
‘Is There Someone Else?’ was released on the 7th January and currently has over 4.2M views on YouTube and is trending at number nine. The Weeknd teased the new video on his Instagram on the 3rd January in a post that celebrates Dawn Fm’s one year anniversary.
The song is from Abel Tesfaye’s, better known as The Weeknd, fifth studio album Dawn FM which was released on 7th January last year. The album is an exquisite experimental mix of 80s synthpop, disco, and R&B where the listener in a state of purgatory is guided through their last night on earth by an easy listening radio station ‘103.5 Dawn Fm’. ‘Is There Someone Else?’ is the sixth song off Dawn FM to be given a video.
The video upholds the dark moody aesthetic that the other videos from the album have displaying a corrupt almost unreal world. Set in a city at dusk Abel is led into an apartment by a beautiful woman (Mackenzee Wilson) who proceeds to sensually dance for him through a lit window. Spying on the couple is a man who is presumably the women’s boyfriend, an eerie figure wearing a plastic mask of Abel’s face (also played by Abel), who peers at the woman through a telescope and watches images of her on film slides. Though he attempts to catch the two he fails finding only the telescope he was watching them through.
The duo Cliqua from California, consisting of RJ Sanchez and Pasqual Gutierrez, directed the video. They have worked with stars such as Bad Bunny on his video for ‘Bichyal’ featuring Yaviah, ROSALÍA and Ozuna on the video for ‘Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi’, and Travis Scott on the video for ‘beibs in the trap’. They are frequent collaborators with the Weeknd having directed the videos for ‘Sacrifice’, ‘Take My Breath’, ‘Out of Time’, ‘Too Late’, creatively directed the video for ‘How Do I Make You Love Me?’, as well as directing the cultural reset ‘Save My Tears’ in which is almost Abel is unrecognisable.
The Weeknd is currently in the midst of his global tour After Hours Til Dawn which commended back in the United States in July 2022 and is set to conclude in Latin America in October 2023.
Words By: Molly Sutherland
