The Weeknd’s ‘Snowchild’ video

The Weeknd has shared the official video for his latest single ‘Snowchild’ – you can watch it below.

The song appears on the Canadian artist’s fourth studio album ‘After Hours’, which arrived back in March.

Directed by the D’ART Shtajio studio – Japan’s first Black-owned animation studio – the new visuals follow a 2D Abel Tesfaye on a journey back in time, resurrecting a number of his past alter-egos.

We see The Weeknd circa ‘Trilogy’ (2012), ‘Starboy’ (2016) and ‘After Hours’, with the star donning his red suit and shades for the latter era look.

Towards the end of the clip, we find a present-day Tesfaye being spat out by bats into the ‘I Feel It Coming’ video location. He eventually makes his way to Las Vegas where his ‘After Hours’ character wreaks havoc.

The video for ‘Snowchild’ follows on from official visuals for ‘Heartless’, ‘In Your Eyes’, ‘Blinding Lights’, ‘Until I Bleed Out’ and the album’s title track – all of which carry the same concept. The ‘After Hours’ short film begins with Tesfaye’s performance of ‘Blinding Lights’ on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Last month, The Weeknd donated $1million (£785m) to coronavirus relief efforts. “I was raised in Scarborough [Toronto] and felt it was important to give back to the community that raised me during the hard times of this pandemic,” he said of the gesture.

In a four-star review, NME said that ‘After Hours’ “stands as The Weeknd’s strongest record in some time, but still there’s a nagging question of what’s to come. Because once you go pop, and then back to your roots, where exactly do you go next? That’s precisely the problem The Weeknd faces with his next effort.”