The Weeknd is kicking off his After Hours Til Dawn Tour tonight to the tune of a sold out show at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. Selling out a 55,000 capacity show in his hometown stadium is a full circle moment for The Weeknd and the magnitude of it all was definitely lost on Drake, one of his earliest supporters. In a video posted to his Instagram Stories, Drake, who just released his latest album, Honestly, Nevermind last month, fawns over hearing The Weeknd for the first time in the driveway of his old Toronto apartment and he was all in his feels about it.
“Ok, look… This right here, this little driveway area right here, this is the first place that I ever heard the Weeknd’s music, right here,” Drake says in the clip, moving the camera over to show the area. He’s borderline gushing and maybe a little emotional from a night out.
He shouts out Oliver El-Khatib (“my brother, of course”) for playing him The Weeknd back then, before continuing with his thought: “This is my old building, in Toronto. We were parked out here, and it was raining. Right here. And that same guy selling out SkyDome tomorrow night… not the Rogers Centre. ‘Cause we just still call it the SkyDome. That man is selling out the SkyDome tomorrow. So I just want anybody that’s trying to do this sh*t to understand… Like, I heard this man’s music right here for the first time. Pouring rain. It’s a great life.”
.@Drake talking about the first time he heard @theweeknd’s music vs. him selling out SkyDome in Toronto tomorrow – no more dreams
pic.twitter.com/DGmf26XxE8
— 𝙼𝙴𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙾 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙸 𝚇𝙾
(@MementoMoriXO) July 8, 2022
You have to appreciate not only Drake’s pure love for The Weeknd, but also his commitment to still calling the Rogers Centre the SkyDome, even though the name changed back in 2005. Regardless, Suffice it to say that Drake will be cheering Abel along on stage like an NBA bench-warmer tonight.