The Weeknd Says He Expected Negative Reaction to 'The Idol'

The Idol, the HBO series from The Weeknd and Euphoria's Sam Levinson, brought its first season to an end last week. I thought it was quite bad, but found the internet pile-on was exaggerated, as they usually are.

“worst sex scenes in history.”“Continue to push the vision no matter how bumpy the journey,” Tesfaye, 33, told his fans in an Instagram post, seemingly referring to the show’s poor reception. Upon premiering at Cannes, “The Idol,” which Tesfaye created with Sam Levinson of “Euphoria” fame, was widely derided for its nudity, sex and directionless plot. “‘The Idol,’ or 50 SHADES OF TESFAYE: A Pornhub-homepage odyssey starring Lily-Rose Depp’s areolas and The Weeknd’s greasy rat tail,” a critic for the Gray Lady sneered after a viewing.“The show heavily exploits Lily … I hope she’s okay with it all because it comes off very exploitative,” another critic worried. The plot followed troubled pop princess Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp, 24, daughter of Johnny Depp) as she became involved in a weird and sex-filled relationship with self-help guru, club owner and cult leader Tedros (Tesfaye). The show regularly scandalized audiences, who cringed at its “nasty” sex scenes.Levinson doubled down after “The Idol” was criticized, defending his work as “revolutionary,” while others noted that the show is actually a lot tamer than earlier efforts, such as “True Blood.” “I think we live in a very sexualized world,” Levinson said.Depp also defended the show, telling Vogue Australia, “We know that we’re making something provocative and we are not shying away from that. That’s something I knew I was setting out to do from the beginning.

Is The Idol just a sick, twisted ex-girlfriend revenge fantasy for one of its stars?!

The Idol wrapped up its controversial first season on Sunday night, and The Weeknd took to social media to celebrate the bow of the HBO drama, which he starred in, co-created and produced with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson.

wrapped up its controversial first season on Sunday night, and The Weeknd took to social media to celebrate the bow of the HBO drama, which he starred in, co-created and produced with creator Sam Levinson.«The finale. grateful to share this moment with you all as the season comes to an end,» The Weeknd, known by his real name, Abel Tesfaye, in his acting work, captioned the slideshow of behind-the-scenes pics from the series.

Note: This story contains spoilers from the “The Idol” episode 5.HBO’s “The Idol” wrapped up its five-episode season Sunday night with a surprise ending — that was evidently spoiled to The Weeknd fans who attended his Los Angeles concert this fall.On the finale: As the twisted relationship between rebounding pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) and shady nightclub owner Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) sunk even deeper into dangerous territory as Tedros attempts to control every part of Jocelyn’s life and career, Jocelyn decides to get rid of Tedros once and for all by bringing her manager Chaim into the mix. When Tedros refuses to take a check for half a million dollars to stay away from Jocelyn, Chaim moves to Plan B — tipping off a Vanity Fair journalist to write a scathing exposé of Tedros’ past exploits that would ruin him forever.Weeks later, in an unexpected turn of events, Tedros shows up at Jocelyn’s concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and the pop star takes him back.

The Weeknd has shared two new songs from The Idol ahead of this Sunday's season one finale. "Like A God" and Lil Baby collaboration "False Idols" are streaming below.

The Weeknd has confirmed that he’s currently “finishing” up his new album.The singer, who recently announced his plan to retire the moniker and record under his birth name Abel Tesfaye, has long teased a trilogy of albums that has so far featured the LPs ‘After Hours’ and ‘Dawn FM’.Now, in a new interview with Variety he has shared an update on the project and discussed how fan theories on the album’s title are incorrect.“I’m finishing the third part of this saga, of this trilogy,” he revealed. “The name of it will come out soon, but it’s not called what some fans think it’s called… what they think it’s called is actually a song on the album, but that’s not what the actual album is called.

The Weeknd has shared a cover of John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’ that’s been used in HBO’s new show The Idol.Ahead of the show’s fourth episode, The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, shared a version of Lennon’s classic song that appears in the show. The Idol is made by Euphoria-creator Sam Levinson and follows the plot of a pop star (Lily-Rose Depp) who develops a controversial relationship with self-help guru and cult leader Tedros (Abel Tesfaye).The cover was first teased back in April and the musician performed it in Norway earlier this week.You can check out the song here:Last week, The Weeknd and BLACKPINK‘s Jennie shared a new song that appears in The Idol – listen to ‘One Of The Girls’ below.Depp also appeared on two new The Weeknd songs ‘World Class Sinner/I’m A Freak’ and ‘The Lure’ from the show’s soundtrack, which were released earlier this month.The first single taken from the HBO drama was titled ‘Double Fantasy’, and hears The Weeknd (now going by his birth name Abel Tesfaye) team up with Future.

The Weeknd and BLACKPINK‘s Jennie have shared a new song that appears in The Idol – listen to ‘One Of The Girls’ below.The Idol is made by Euphoria-creator Sam Levinson and follows the plot of a pop star (Lily-Rose Depp) who develops a controversial relationship with self-help guru and cult leader Tedros (Abel Tesfaye).Depp also appeared on two new The Weeknd songs ‘World Class Sinner/I’m A Freak’ and ‘The Lure’ from the show’s soundtrack, which were released earlier this month.Now, Tesfaye has teamed up with Jennie, who also appears in The Idol as one of Depp’s backup dancers, Dyanne, for a new track.Listen to ‘One Of The Girls’ below.The first single taken from the HBO drama was titled ‘Double Fantasy’, and hears The Weeknd (now going by his birth name Abel Tesfaye) team up with Future. Like ‘The Lure’, the collaborative single featured production from The Weeknd and Mike Dean, and arrived accompanied by a music video that featured clips from the show.More recently the singer-songwriter and actor released the single ‘Popular’, which saw him join forces with Playboy Carti and queen of pop, Madonna.

Everyone has something to say about “The Idol.” Since even before it premiered, the Max series — the “sick and twisted” brainchild of Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson — has been slammed for “too graphic” sex scenes and excessive displays of “breast and ass,” as well as a particularly “nasty” steamy segment that Tesfaye was forced to defend.The “torture porn” drama, which premiered with 900,000 viewers, follows Jocelyn, portrayed by Lily-Rose Depp, a troubled pop star who becomes increasingly enraptured with the mysterious, rat-tail-donning Tedros (Tesfaye). Now, even a famed snack brand is trying to crumble the show’s cookies.After it was prematurely reported that the show would be canceled after only one season, the official Oreo account replied with more fire than one might expect from milk’s favorite cookie.

The Weeknd is speaking out about all the criticism surrounding The Idol.

Sam Levinson reveals how he managed to convince The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, to play as creep on “The Idol”.

William Earl After the third episode of “The Idol,” series co-creator Sam Levinson described how he developed the creepy, awkward and ambitious cult leader Tedros played by Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. “We’re in Abel’s house, we’re talking it through, imagining the character Tedros,” Levinson said, in the series’ “Crafting the Family” featurette on Max. “And I would say, ‘Imagine you have all of the dreams that you have of what you want to do in life, in terms of music, and your career, all of the aspirations — but imagine you have none of the talent. That’s who this character is.'” Tesfaye described the character similarly in a recent interview.

Well, fans of The Idol, it’s looking like this is going to be your only season.

The Weeknd is responding to the backlash surrounding that graphic sex scene on his controversial new show “The Idol”.

The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, is facing backlash from the internet due to his role in a highly explicit sex scene in new HBO series The Idol.The singer plays a cult-like club owner who preys on a vulnerable pop icon struggling to create new music after the death of her mother.The controversial scene that has rubbed viewers up the wrong way shows The Weeknd's character, Tedros, firing off sexually graphic commands to Jocelyn, played by Lily Rose Depp, as she strips on her bed.The show, which has been described as a “rape fantasy,” has been facing criticism since it aired, with many people believing that this particular scene was in poor taste and crossed boundaries. One Twitter user claimed that she would “never see The Weeknd the same after this.” Another user wrote: “It sounds better when he is singing these lines.

The Weeknd is addressing that very awkward sex scene from episode two of The Idol.

The Weeknd is addressing his highly talked about moments in The Idol, and apparently they’re all part of the plan…

Ethan Shanfeld SPOILER ALERT: This story contains minor spoilers from the second episode of HBO’s “The Idol,” titled “Double Fantasy,” now streaming on Max. If that sex scene at the end of Episode 2 of HBO’s “The Idol” made you uncomfortable, then Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye accomplished his goal. Tesfaye, who co-created “The Idol” with “Euphoria’s” Sam Levinson, spoke with GQ after the scene, which features his character Tedros verbally seducing pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), sparked controversy online. “There’s nothing sexy about it,” Tesfaye told GQ. “However you’re feeling watching that scene, whether it’s discomfort, or you feel gross, or you feel embarrassed for the characters. It’s all those emotions adding up to: this guy is in way over his head, this situation is one where he is not supposed to be here.”