The Weeknd has officially replaced Doja Cat with three new opening acts on his highly anticipated After Hours Till Dawn tour — Swedish R&B star Snoh Aalegra, Canadian soul singer Kaytranada, and hip-hop DJ/producer Mike Dean.
It’s been more than a month since the Planet Her artist announced she’d be pulling out of The Weeknd’s tour due to issues with her tonsils, for which she just recently underwent a second surgery. She had previously suffered an infection in her throat due to complications with an antibiotic she was taking, leading her to announce on Twitter that she couldn’t fulfill her festival commitments, much less her tour plans with The Weeknd.
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“I feel horrible about this but can’t wait for this to heal and get back to making music and create an experience for y’all,” she wrote at the time.
The news of Doja’s replacements came via an exclusive with Variety, in which the “Out Of Time” artist’s team explained that his choices of Aalegra, Kaytranada, and Dean reflect his “long practice of having up-and-coming acts open his tours.”
“He’s always been ahead of the curve in terms of the artists that he’s shared a stage with,” Live Nation’s president of touring, Omar Al-joulani, told the publication.
The tour itself has also faced a few obstacles in getting off the ground, with The Weeknd originally scheduled to hit the road back in the summer of 2020 in support of his hit album After Hours. When the pandemic hit, however, it was postponed a couple times, with the “Blinding Lights” singer going on to release a full another album, Dawn FM. Now, that same tour has been reimagined two years later into a show that’ll combine both albums.
“The entire show is conceptual,” creative director La Mar Taylor told Variety. “There is a linear story between ‘After Hours’ and ‘Dawn FM,’ and I think the audience will walk away with different interpretations of the show … The setlist will put an emphasis on the newer albums, while still highlighting big moments throughout the catalog.”
