Announced in early September 2025, the After Hours Til Dawn 2026 extension brings The Weeknd back to France: Stade de France (Paris) on July 10, 2026, Allianz Riviera (Nice) on July 21, 2026, with Playboi Carti opening. Behind the mask, Abel Tesfaye continues his transformation, between streaming records and the end of a trilogy with Hurry Up Tomorrow. Here is the portrait of an artist in the present, on the brink of a new era.
Paris and Nice 2026: two dates in France and ticket sales under pressure
The return of The Weeknd to France now has dates: July 10, 2026 at the Stade de France (Paris) and July 21, 2026 at the Allianz Riviera (Nice). These stops open a new sequence of the After Hours Til Dawn tour, started in 2022 and set to continue until summer 2026. Live Nation presale tickets: Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 12 PM. General ticket sales: Friday, September 12, 2025, at 12 PM. The previous shows, in 2023, sold out in a few minutes: the expected crowd and the size of the stadiums predict a ticketing tidal wave.
For the European and British leg, Playboi Carti will open: a logical choice given the artistic synergy that has strengthened in recent years. He was heard alongside Abel Tesfaye on Timeless (album Hurry Up Tomorrow) and Rather Lie (Carti’s album, Music – Sorry 4 Da Wait, 2025). The pairing promises to heat things up before the Canadian takes the stage.
After Hours Til Dawn 2026 Tour: records and the scale of R & B
Launched in 2022, After Hours Til Dawn has become, through its North America, Europe, United Kingdom, South America, and Australia legs, the largest tour ever undertaken by an R & B artist. The stage setup — modular scenography, giant screens, ghost-town dramaturgy — has set a standard: a visual narrative designed for large stadiums, fueled by the aesthetics of After Hours and Dawn FM. The new 2026 leg adds a layer: Mexico, Brazil (with Anitta as a guest), then a massive return to the Old Continent, with Paris and Nice leading the French side.
Beyond the numbers, the tour has cemented an image: The Weeknd as the architect of a nocturnal R & B that has become global pop. The synth blocks, tempo shifts, and falsetto bridges create an instantly recognizable grammar.
Abel Tesfaye, the controlled transformation of an alias
Born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (Toronto, 1990), the artist has made The Weeknd a public mask, now embraced as a cycle nearing closure. Since 2023, he has increasingly brought his civil name to the forefront. His sixth album, Hurry Up Tomorrow (January 31, 2025), was announced as the end of a trilogy (After Hours → Dawn FM → Hurry Up Tomorrow) and a farewell to this "vampiric" alter ego. Ultimately, he expresses his desire to sign under Abel Tesfaye. This step has already been taken on his social media. Additionally, some interviews confirm it.
The shift is as much aesthetic as it is narrative: more raw light, dance-pop pulses inherited from Dawn FM, a persistent taste for new wave and dream pop textures that permeate his discography.
A trilogy conceived as an arc, extended by a film
Hurry Up Tomorrow did not stop at an album: a conceptual film of the same name, starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, explores the downfall of a star, a fictional mirror of Tesfaye’s cherished themes: the vertigo of fame, addictions, double life. The project deliberately blurs the lines between character and author, extending what The Idol (2023) already sketched: telling the industry from the inside, even if it means provoking controversy and critical rejection.
On record, Hurry Up Tomorrow stacks high-profile collaborations and consolidates a broad sound intended for stadiums. Timeless has become one of the flagship tracks in concert, while other darker tracks reconnect with the tension of After Hours.
On stage: the "grand spectacle" in service of the songs
The Weeknd‘s concerts are as much about storytelling as they are about the show: urban scenes, artificial moon, lasers, crowds of smartphones forming constellations. The voice, a clear tenor supported by his head voice, effortlessly traverses the arena. Moreover, the tour has honed this ease. In the opening, Playboi Carti brings a rawer energy, bridging trap and synthetic pop. The possible duets (Carti × Tesfaye) are enough to excite predictions for summer 2026.
Streaming, records, and pop footprint
The Blinding Lights phenomenon has surpassed the unprecedented milestone of 5 billion streams on Spotify: a reign that summarizes the artist’s impact on the 2020s. The Weeknd remains, since 2023, one of the top global artists on platforms, peaking at over 110 million monthly listeners depending on the period. So many proofs of his pop centrality, which he navigates without denying his R & B roots.
If we trace the timeline, the milestones explain this power: the House of Balloons/Thursday/Echoes of Silence** trilogy (2011) lays down a sensual and hazy alternative R & B; *Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) places him at the top of the charts; Starboy (2016) refines the electro-pop aspect with Daft Punk; After Hours (2020) seals the meeting between nocturnal melancholy and mainstream hegemony.
Engagements and the economy of a world artist
Abel Tesfaye has not only invested in the charts: he has developed a brand (label XO co-founded in 2011), multiplied partnerships (fashion, video games), and structured a visible philanthropic component. Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme (UN) since 2021, he launched the XO Humanitarian Fund: each ticket sold on After Hours Til Dawn generates a donation. In 2024, part of the proceeds funded emergency food distributions in the Middle East.
The strategy reveals a constant: making the tour a cultural, economic, and solidarity lever. The giant stages become as much megaphones for his causes as they are showcases for his music.
Stadiums in France 2026: what Paris and Nice say
Opening the European summer 2026 with Paris, then heading to Nice, reconnects with two venues where he has already tested his show (summer 2023). The capital offers the solemnity of the Stade de France; the Côte d’Azur, the paradoxical intimacy of a stadium open to the sea. This double stop tells of an artist at ease everywhere, capable of attracting 80,000 people in Paris and transforming Nice into a panoramic dance floor.
For the French audience, the stakes are twofold: to see a production whose scale has no equivalent in contemporary R & B, and perhaps to witness the last concerts of the ‘The Weeknd’ era before an assumed shift under the name Abel Tesfaye.
Biographical markers and listening selector
– Civil name: Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (1990).
– Origins: Ethiopian parents, childhood in Toronto.
– Label: XO (co-founded in 2011), distribution Republic Records.
– Key works: House of Balloons (2011), Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), Starboy (2016), After Hours (2020), Dawn FM (2022), Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025).
– Awards: 4 Grammy Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 22 Juno Awards, 6 American Music Awards…
– To see/listen to before the concerts:
• Live at SoFi Stadium (2023), a capture that freezes the current stage grammar.
• The Dawn FM Experience (2022), a televised variation on the album.
• Hurry Up Tomorrow (film, 2025), a mirror piece of the album.
Practical: tickets, presale, and where to follow
– Official site: theweeknd.com/tour
– Instagram: @theweeknd
Ticketing: remember to sign up for presale and general sale alerts; prepare your accounts and payment methods in advance, as virtual queues are often saturated at opening (12 PM).
Heading into summer 2026
As The Weeknd embraces the end of a cycle and prepares for the next under his real name, the stadiums of Paris and Nice are set to be pivotal stages. Between streaming records, world tour, and identity transformation, Abel Tesfaye plays his music in the present: that of an artist closing a story in grand format to better write the next one.