The Weeknd’s video for his upcoming single “Take My Breath” will no longer air in IMAX theaters this week as intended due to its “intense strobe lighting,” Billboard can confirm.
Earlier this week, The Weeknd shared the heart-thumping, synth-heavy instrumentals of “Take My Breath” in a nearly two-minute clip that captured the essence of his next musical era, “the dawn.” He later previewed more of the single in an official promo for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo that spotlighted the U.S. women’s track & field team. “Take My Breath,” as the Olympics clip indicates, is set to be released this Friday.
Its accompanying visual was slated to air in IMAX theaters before this week’s opening showings of The Suicide Squad, but the video calls for epilepsy warnings regarding the strobe lights.
The Weeknd previously announced “the dawn is coming” at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards in May. “I just want to say the After Hours are done and the dawn is coming,” the superstar said during his acceptance speech after he won the Top Hot 100 Song award for his smash single “Blinding Lights.”
“Blinding Lights,” from his Billboard 200 No. 1 album After Hours last year, made history as the first song ever to spend a year in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. It is recognized as the No. 2 most-streamed song on Spotify (with 2.42 billion plays), only behind Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”
