Dawn FM Trivia | 45 facts about the album by The Weeknd

“Dawn FM” is the fifth album by Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd. The album has already received praise by music critics.

Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the new album.

1. Dawn FM is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd
2. The album was released on January 7, 2022, through XO and Republic Records
3. The album is narrated by Canadian-American actor Jim Carrey
4. It features guest appearances from Tyler, the Creator and Lil Wayne
5. Dawn FM also features spoken word appearances from Quincy Jones and Josh Safdie
6. Executive produced by the Weeknd, Max Martin and Oneohtrix Point Never
7. The album includes additional production contributions from Oscar Holter, Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia, among others
8. Dawn FM serves as a follow-up to the Weeknd’s fourth studio album After Hours (2020)
9. To support both albums, he plans to embark on the After Hours til Dawn Stadium Tour
10. The tour spans North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, Africa and Middle East
11. On March 20, 2020, the Weeknd released his fourth studio album After Hours, during the beginning of COVID-19 restrictions
12. Primarily produced by the singer-songwriter, the featureless album was a commercial success and was met with generally positive reviews, with some music critics naming it his best work yet
13. Shortly after its release, the Weeknd began working on a new album
14. During an interview with Rolling Stone in September 2020, he stated that he “might have another album ready to go by the time this quarantine is over”
15. The Weeknd began to tease a new album in May 2021 during an interview with Variety, in which he stated “if the last record is the After Hours of the night, then The Dawn is coming”
16. He continued to tease the album with the tentative title The Dawn during his acceptance speeches at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards and the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards
17. On August 2, the Weeknd released an initial teaser on his social media pages titled “The Dawn is Coming”
18. The teaser contained a snippet of a then-unreleased song
19. Later that day, in a partnership with NBC Sports and the 2020 Summer Olympics, he announced the album’s lead single “Take My Breath”
20. The lead single was released on August 6
21. On October 4, 2021, during an episode of his Apple Music 1 radio show, Memento Mori, the Weeknd announced that the album was complete, and that he was waiting on a “couple characters that are key to the narrative”
22. He then described the characters as “some people that are near and dear to me, some people that inspired my life as a child and some that inspire me now”
23. On January 1, 2022, the Weeknd teased a possible surprise album release in an Instagram post, which featured a screenshot of a text conversation he had with best friend and creative director La Mar Taylor
24. While they exchanged New Year’s greetings, the Weeknd replied that “Everything feels chaotic again. Music can heal and that feels more important than another album rollout. Let’s just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people… XO”
25. The next day, the Weeknd teased the album’s arrival, tweeting “wake up at dawn tomorrow”
26. On January 3, he formally revealed the album’s official title through an album trailer
27. He also announced that it would be released on January 7
28. He subsequently announced the track listing through a second trailer on January 5
29. Dawn FM incorporates a “psychedelic radio” aesthetic with existential themes
30. Similar to American experimental record producer Oneohtrix Point Never’s album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never (2020), which the Weeknd appeared on and executive produced under his formal name
31. The standard Dawn FM album cover shows a dramatically aged and bearded version of the Weeknd in a dark setting with a small ray of light shining over his shoulder, symbolizing the album’s themes of life transitioning to death
32. The collector’s editions of the album, listed on the Weeknd’s online store, features three alternate Dawn FM covers designed by American artist Robert Beatty, who also designed the album cover for Oneohtrix Point Never’s Magic Oneohtrix Point Never
33. The HMV and Target exclusive alternate covers were also designed by Beatty
34. Dawn FM is a disco, new wave, psychedelia, synth-pop and synthwave
35. The record also includes elements of post-disco, house, city pop and funk
36. “Sacrifice” was released as the second official single in tandem with Dawn FM on January 7, 2022
37. Its accompanying music video was released on January 7, 2022
38. The music video was directed by Cliqua
39. Its storyline follows the plot previously established by the “Take My Breath” music video
40. The song is set to be released to contemporary hit radio in the United States on January 11, 2022
41. Dawn FM was met with widespread critical acclaim
42. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 89
43. Based on 12 reviews
44. Indicating “universal acclaim”
45. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus