The highly anticipated new video for the just released song "Starboy" by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk has just been released. The clip has already received a nomination for an MTV European Music Award despite the fact that the nominations were announced before the video was even released.
On Sept.21, The Weeknd, otherwise known as Abęl Makkonen Tesfaye, unleashed the first song from his soon to be released new album of the same name, Starboy.
The collaboration with legendary electronic music duo Daft Punk had been highly anticipated, with the track having topped Billboard's top Twitter Trending songs chart prior to its release.
The song's minimalist electronic R&B production was not the epic and layered electronic soundscape many expected from the partnership with Daft Punk on board, but nonetheless many fans of both artists are taking to the catchy track.
Now, the video for the song has been released, and features a dark, moody production style that echoes that of the song itself. In the clip, The Weeknd murders the prior version of himself via suffocation, returns with his new haircut to trash evidence of his earlier incarnation using a glowing cross-shaped neon pink lightsaber, and then drives off in style with a pet panther in tow, all while singing his new song.
It's a muted visual debut for the artist's latest work, and features none of the slick gliding dance moves that helped catapult him to fame on the strength of his second studio album, 2015's The Beauty Behind The Madness, which produced two Billboard Hot 100 Chart toppers, the exuberant "Can't Feel My Face," and "The Hills," which also featured a dark, minimalist production style in both song and video.
In a somewhat bizarre occurrence, the new clip was announced as one of the five nominees for best video for the MTV EMA, alongside Beyoncé's "Formation," Kanye West's "Famous," Tame Impala's "The Less I Know the Better" and Coldplay's "Up&Up."
The nomination, however, was announced the day before the video was actually released, leaving many observers to wonder whether it was included based on merit or instead as a result of The Weeknd's popularity at the channel.
Now that it has been released, the somewhat underwhelming clip will likely be fuel for the fire among the conspiracy theorists. The Weeknd was also nominated for two other categories: Best Male and Best Canadian Act.
The full Starboy album is set to be released in its entirety on Nov.25, and you can now check out the clip for the title track below.
