By Brian Boone
Everybody thinks the weekend is divine. But is international pop music sensation The Weeknd slowly creating a contemporary adaptation of Dante’s 14th century epic The Divine Comedy? Let’s take a long, literary look.
What’s The Divine Comedy?
Written between 1308 and 1321, The Divine Comedy, or Divine Commedia in the native Italian of its author, Dante Alighieri (so luminous he’s usually referred to by only his first name), is a three-part narrative epic poem. The work details in first-person narrative Dante’s mystical and harrowing journey through the three realms of the afterlife, as outlined by Roman Catholic theology and doctrine: Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). The Divine Comedy left an indelible mark on Western culture, particularly the imagery it depicts of the theorized afterlife.
Who is The Weeknd?
The Weeknd is the stage name of Canadian musician Abel Tesfaye. One of the dominant musical stars of the late 2010s and 2020s, he combines soul, rock, R&B, and electronic sounds to create a wholly original sound. He’s probably best known for playing the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show and “Blinding Lights,” which Billboard named the biggest hit in American history.
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What’s the connection?
According to a Reddit thread that grew and then went viral in 2022, The Weeknd might be working on a musical version of The Divine Comedy, secretly but in plain sight. The rather credible, well-supported theory posits that The Weeknd’s three 2020s albums each represented a different book of the Divine Comedy trilogy.
For example, the songs on After Hours from 2020 are concerned with drugs and debauchery and the musician’s guilt and regret over his indulgences. This all parallels with the Hell-set Inferno, as does how The Weekend promoted the record while wearing devilishly red suits and utilizing imagery of Las Vegas, i.e. “Sin City.”
Next, in 2022, came Dawn FM, or, as the Reddit theorists suggest, the Purgatorio record. The songs are about a man trying to heal, make amends, and do better in the future. In Purgatory, Dante goes through the same cleansing process in that celestially gray area. (The color scheme for Dawn FM, for what it’s worth: grays.)
This would all suggest that fans can suggest certain themes and vibes from the Weeknd’s planned 2023 album — it will be his heavenly, or Paradiso-based record.
What’s the effect?
At any rate, The Weeknd is so popular and well-liked that the book industry has credited the musician with an otherwise inexplicable sales spike. In the last year, booksellers registered an uptick in more people buying copies of The Divine Comedy, a book that just recently celebrated its 700th birthday.
Get in on the craze! A beautifully leather-bound, lushly illustrated and complete version of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, as translated by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is available now from Canterbury Classics.