While Bruno Mars being the most anticipated performer of Lollapalooza really should have been headlining Saturday night instead of Friday night for the third day of Lollapalooza on the main Grant Park stage, it was Alt-R&B crooner, The Weeknd, who did instead. The singer, who is one of the pioneers of the more new great form of R&B, he helped usher in over the past few years with the likes of Frank Ocean and Elijah Blake, putting on one of the better performances so far of the world-renowned four-day festival in Chicago on Saturday night, which will be closing with its fourth and final day today.
Emerging from the cracked face of a massive, tipped-over head, which looked like the fallen ruins from Mount Olympus, The Weeknd immediately towered over his super-sized backdrop and showed how much he has grown over the past few years since becoming easily one of the biggest R&B/Pop superstars of this generation. Which was also noticeable from the very massive crowd he garnered on the furthest South end of Chicago’s Grant Park that started piling in even as early as when the performer before him playing the main Grant Park stage, Logic, took the stage at around 6:30pm.
Starting his set with easily his biggest records to date, Pray for Me and Starboy, The Weeknd, bounced across the stage with an explosiveness way different from his aloof demeanor of his albums. As he belted out his appealing and signature yearning croon, while sporting a rare movie-star like smile throughout his set. Perhaps cause of the fact he knew his model on-and-off again current girlfriend, Bella Hadid was in the crowd.
Going through much of his two albums very popular records such as Party Monster, Reminder, Sidewalks, Secrets, I Can’t Feel My Face, I Feel It Coming and Earned It. While also some of his older material from his mixtapes when he first emerged in 2012, which are still some of his best records to date, such as, Crew Love, House of Ballons, The Morning and Wicked Games, showing how the crooner has really been able to adopt his discography, both new and old so perfectly for the stage.
You know, The Weeknd, couldn’t close without performing some of his newer material he released to very critical reception earlier this year with, Wasted Times and Call Out My Name. Both records from his mostly critically-acclaimed debut EP, My Dear Melancholy, which really helped bring back a lot of his earlier core fan base, like myself, which he had kind of lost on one or both of his albums.
The crooner closing out with his very popular, yet still to his original dark sound, from his mixtapes record, The Hills, to end his performance. The Weeknd with his great signature crooning, so well adopted to the stage, showing why he’s so loved by this generation and his fans, so much.