The Weeknd has debuted a new track, ‘Tokyo’, featuring Japanese singer Yoko Takahashi, to open the Asian leg of his ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ tour.
The Canadian singer, real name Abel Tesfaye, performed the first of two sold-out shows at Belluna Dome in Saitama, near Tokyo, on September 19, marking the live premiere of the unreleased song.
Takahashi, best known for performing ‘A Cruel Angel’s Thesis’—the iconic opening theme of the 1995 anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion—joined Tesfaye on stage during the performance.
The new track incorporates elements of ‘A Cruel Angel’s Thesis’, accompanied by stadium visuals featuring characters from both Neon Genesis Evangelion and the video game NieR:Automata.
The Weeknd subsequently shared the performance footage on social media, crediting the segment as “Presented by YOKO TARO ft. YOKO TAKAHASHI.”
Presented by YOKO TARO ft. YOKO TAKAHASHI pic.twitter.com/a8wUBHV7k6
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) September 19, 2026
Yoko Taro, creative director best known for the NieR series, oversaw the visual presentation.
Following ‘Tokyo’, Takahashi also performed ‘A Cruel Angel’s Thesis’ for the audience, with Tesfaye joining her onstage.
Fan-shot footage of the performance has also circulated online.
The Weeknd performed ‘Tokyo’ again at his second Belluna Dome show on September 20. These two concerts launch the final Asian stretch of the long-running ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ stadium tour, with upcoming dates in Jakarta (September 26–27), Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, and Hong Kong before concluding in Kuala Lumpur on November 4.
‘Tokyo’ marks the second unreleased song The Weeknd has debuted live this year. In April, he premiered ‘Rio’—a collaboration with Anitta—during a show in the Brazilian city, where the pair were joined by dancers and pyrotechnics and an accompanying animated film directed by Takashi Miike.
The emergence of new material follows Tesfaye’s repeated suggestions that he intended to retire the Weeknd name after his 2025 album ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’.
The album completed a trilogy that began with 2020’s ‘After Hours’ and continued with 2022’s ‘Dawn FM’, with Tesfaye previously stating he felt he had “overcome every challenge” as The Weeknd.
However, he reversed course at a Stockholm concert last month, telling the audience: “I’ll never disappear. I love this too much to ever disappear. I tested retirement a little bit, and I don’t like the way it feels. Imma be here forever with you.”
He reiterated those comments earlier this week in an interview with GQ Hong Kong, saying: “At one point I thought, ‘What if I just stopped?’ But then I realised what a waste all of that inspiration would be.”
“I can’t let that happen. I had a glimpse of what retirement looks like, and it isn’t for me. It’s a real privilege to do what I do. There’s nothing else like this job.”
The ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ tour, running since 2022, has become the highest-grossing tour by a male solo artist in history.
Earlier this summer, he kicked off the European leg in Copenhagen, followed by two nights at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium and a sold-out five-night run at Wembley Stadium.