The Weeknd – Heartless

From No. 32 to No. 1 in seven days

Abel Tesfaye released “Heartless” on 27 November 2019 through his label XO and Republic Records. It was the first single from After Hours, the album that came out on 20 March 2020, and he has said it was the first song he wrote for that record after the 2018 EP My Dear Melancholy. It premiered that night on his Beats 1 show, Memento Mori. Two days later, “Blinding Lights” followed. The song was recorded in 2019 at XO Studios in Hidden Hills, California, and at Noble Street Studios in Toronto.

Tesfaye wrote it with Leland Wayne, known as Metro Boomin, Carlo Montagnese, known as Illangelo, and Andre Proctor, known as Dre Moon. Tesfaye, Metro Boomin, and Illangelo produced it. Dre Moon is listed as co-producer. Illangelo also engineered and mixed it. Shin Kamiyama engineered. Dave Kutch and Kevin Peterson mastered it. The beat is slow and dark, closer to the trap records Metro Boomin was known for than to the brighter pop of “Can’t Feel My Face.” Tesfaye sings in a high voice over it. The chorus points back to his guest verse on Future’s “Low Life,” with the line about staying a low life. The words are about money, drugs, and going back to old habits after a relationship.

On the Billboard Hot 100 dated 7 December 2019, the song entered at No. 32, the highest debut of that week. The next week it jumped to No. 1, his fourth, after “Can’t Feel My Face,” “The Hills,” and “Starboy.” It was also No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Canada took it to No. 3. Britain took it to No. 10, his seventh top 10 there. Australia took it to No. 10. The week after the American No. 1, Christmas songs filled the top of the chart and “Heartless” fell to No. 17, the biggest drop from No. 1 in the chart’s history at that point. When After Hours arrived, the song returned to No. 4 on the chart dated 4 April 2020.