The Weeknd debuted a new Playboi Carti collaboration at Cannes Film Festival this week, where he premiered his new HBO show The Idol.
The unreleased song was heard playing on the red carpet in France on Monday (May 22) as the Canadian hitmaker arrived to the festival alongside co-star Lily-Rose Depp and filmmaker Sam Levinson.
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Both The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s vocals can be heard on the upbeat track, which is reminiscent of The Neptunes‘ late ’90s/early ’00s sound.
Listen to a snippet below:
THE WEEKND X CARTI SNIPPET 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FD5zZu6XRS
— ☆☆00 ROCKSTAR☆☆‼️🎸🧛🏽♂️ (@JokeTmcp) May 23, 2023
The Idol received a five-minute-plus standing ovation following the premiere of the first two episodes of the show, which is set to air on HBO on June 4.
According to Variety, the episodes “shocked” Cannes with “revenge porn photos of bodily fluids on Depp’s face, masturbation with ice cubes, nightclub-owning scam artists and vile Hollywood sycophants.”
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The Weeknd released his last album Dawn FM in January 2022, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with roughly 148,000 total album-equivalent units in its first week.
Most recently, the singer shared a new track with Future called “Double Fantasy” in April as part of original music for The Idol.
In February, he also dropped a remix of his 2017 song “Die for You” featuring Ariana Granda following its resurgence in popularity on TikTok.
Earlier this month, The Weeknd hinted at retiring his longtime stage name and making music under a new alias.
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“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he told W Magazine. “It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter.
“I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”
He added: “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd. This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.”
