The Weeknd is a renounced Canadian artist who has rocked the world with his outstanding songwriting, singing, and song-producing capabilities. He’s professionally known as The Weeknd whereas his actual name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. He debuted his career back in 2009 with a solo release named ‘Wicked Games’ that was shown to the world via the platform YouTube. The basic taste of his music depicts signs of Romance, Melancholia, and at times Escapism. In many of his interviews with the media, he disclosed that most are his music stories are self-inspired. So today we will break down his songs in accordance with The Weeknd Song Tier List, including all of his songs from 2009 and moving forward to date.
Key Points
- There are a total of 24 songs in this Tier List.
- We will rank all the songs according to their general crowd reaction, fame, and rating.
- In the highest tiers, you will see songs like Blinding Lights; I Feel It Coming, Wicked Games, and The Hills.
- Among the lowest tiers, you will observe songs like Live For, The Morning, and Tears in the Rain.
Summary
We will rank all the songs in a short table below.
| S Rank | A Rank | B Rank | C Rank | D Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blinding Lights | Save Your Tears | Tell your Friends | Losers | Live for |
| I Feel it Coming | In Your Eyes | Privilege | Outside | The Morning |
| Wicked Games | Often | The Morning | Gone | Tears in the Rain |
| The Hills | Can't Feel My Face | Angel | Prisoner | |
| After Hours | Feel it Coming | Wanderlust | Thursday | |
| Call Out my Name |
Learn more about each entry by reading on.
S Tier
S TierS tier or wise knowns as the superb tier includes the best of the best variety of songs The Weeknd ever produced. The songs that are a part of this list speak for themselves. Their public responses, and views, and despite being released years before, are still heard like they are newly released. With his inspiring lyrical abilities to his breathtaking magic of voice, no one is left unimpressed when he hears Weeknd for the first time.
Blinding Lights
Considered to be one of the best songs ever released by The Weeknd is The Blinding Lights, it was released at the back end year 2019. The song holds a number of individual records worldwide.
The genre of this song is R&B/Soul and Synthwave. This song all alone topped the ‘Billboard hot 100’ for straight four weeks, not only this, this song was one of a few songs to stay for the longest number of weeks in the top 5 and top 10 respectively.
In addition to this particular song is the only song to have remained a part of the Top 10 chart for an entire year, which is an achievement that stands for itself. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, the song successfully earned 2.72 Billion subscribers.
On Spotify, it was the most-streamed song of 2020 with almost 1.6 billion streams. The official YouTube audio of the song holds a filthy 661 million views alone. The later released Arabic version of this song is also an artifact within itself.
| Genre | Synthwave, Electropop |
| Year of Release | 2019 (Nov) |
I Feel it Coming
I Feel it Coming is another masterpiece of the talented Weeknd, it was a part of the album Starboy. Two years after its release i.e. 2018, it was nominated as the song of the year. According to the ‘Billboard hot 100’, the song was ranked number 4 till 15 Th of April 2017.
The YouTube official video of this particular song is nearing One Billion views (982 million to be precise). The song’s easygoing and fresh taste makes it a good choice for the younger ones to listen to in their different engagements in life.
| Genre | Disco-pop |
| Year of Release | 2016 (Nov) |
Wicked Games
Wicked Games is one of those songs that became the reason for identification for The Weeknd, his first-ever single that got global fame. It was 9 th of May 2013, when the ‘Recording Industry Association of America certified the song with Double Platinum, for its 1,000,000 shipped units in the United States of America alone. The movie Southpaw featured this song in its movie too.
| Genre | Quiet Storm, Alternatively R&B |
| Year of Release | 2011 |
The Hills
The Hills is one of the Weeknd’s singles from the album named Beauty Behind the Madness. It was an ultimate success for the multi-talented Weekend, as the song got multiple chances to feature on year-end lists.
It topped the list of best songs not only in his native Canada but also in America, leaving behind his own song ‘Can’t Feel My Face. Later in May 2019, the song was certified as Diamond by RIAA. So this was a unique distinction for him, making it his first song to be Diamond Certified.
| Genre | Trap music, R&B/Soul, Pop, Alternative R&B |
| Year of Release | 2015 (May) |
After Hours
After Hours is numbered the fourth studio album by the Canadian Native, Weeknd. The video of this song is basically a short film too, a clear proof of the Weeknd’s versatility and willingness to work for different domains of jobs.
The music Journalists called the album an artistic reinvention by the Weeknd. The song broke new records for being featured as the most global pre-adds in the Apple Music’s all-time History, taking it up to 1.02 million users.
| Genre | R&B New wave, Dream Pop |
| Year of Release | 2020 (March) |
Call Out my Name
This song is considered to have a special attachment to Weeknd, as it is considered that this song is inspired by his relationship with the super stay ‘Selena Gomez’, back then in 2017. The song holds a healthy 747 Million views on its official video. This song earned the largest first-day Spotify stream count for any new song released in the year 2018 and thus it is on the S Tier.
| Genre | R&B |
| Year of Release | 2018 (April) |
A tier
A TierA tier, that is also known as the second-best inline, includes all of Weeknd’s songs that are new to the S tier. Every single song on The Weeknd Song Tier List holds special importance to this Canadian artist.
Every single song belonging to the A tier list is one of the all-time greats of his bright career and it would not be wrong calling them the best song of his singing career, although lower than the S tier, but compatible enough to give a very hard to any other good singers of the time.
It’s a really very rigorous decision to place these songs into the A tier, instead of the S tier, but there were obviously several reasons contributing to this cause.
Save Your Tears
Save your tear is an artifact of The Weekends Fourth studio album, named After hours. The Weeknd received personal praise for his breathtaking vocals in this particular song. The song internationally topped the table in 18 different countries, whereas it was a part of the top 10 charts in 33 other countries.
This song was declared to be the official theme song of Wrestle Mania. Later on in March 2020, the song’s remix version was introduced. The song alone received 2.15 Billion Subscriptions and was the best-performing global single of 2021.
| Genre | Synth-pop, Synthwave |
| Year of Release | 2020(Aug) |
In Your Eyes
This song was introduced into 2 versions, one was the standard version and the other was the remix version of this song. It is a part of the Fourth Studio album of The Weeknd. It was the third single song belonging to his album, and the song, in particular, was released 4 days in advance of the rest of the album to which it actually belonged.
Doja Cat, an American rapper, and singer featured in the remix version of this song in May 2020. However, despite all this, out of all the 4 single releases, this particular song was ratted the least out of them all and was the most unsuccessful launch of these four songs.
| Genre | Disco, Synth-pop |
| Year of Release | 2020 (March) |
Often
Often was one of a few early releases of the Weeknd, taking him into the time when he had not reached the peak of his artistic performance. The Billboard 100 ranked it at number 59 and the song spent a total of 20 weeks on the list of hit songs, similarly according to the Canadian Hot 100 it was ranked at number 69.
The song, later on, inspired a Turkish singer, Nukhet Duru to release a version of it in the Turkish language, however, it couldn’t get the desired hype and fame as anticipated. The Recording Industry Association of America awarded the song with a Triple Platinum Certificate, which was a big achievement in the context. Music Canada certified it as Gold for selling 40,000 copies of the respective song alone in Canada.
| Genre | Alternative R&B, EDM |
| Year of Release | 2014 (July) |
Can’t Feel My Face
The song, Can’t feel my face is a hit song from the album ‘Beauty Behind the Madness, which was the second studio album of The Weeknd. It was his 3 single from the album. The song faced a lot of criticism as they started to compare Can’t feel my face song sound similar to the works of Michael Jackson (late). However, according to The Rolling Gate, it was ranked as the best song of the year 2015.
With exception to this, the song qualified for not one, but two Grammy Awards for the Best Pop Solo Performance and then the Record of The Year award too. Not only this, the song topped the Billboard Top 100 and also the Canadian Hot 100 for quite some while. The song was also praised as Pop Perfection by Brennan Carley.
| Genre | Funk |
| Year of Release | 2015(June) |
Feel it Coming
This is a famous song by The Weekend, this song also featured French Electronic Duo, it belongs to his third studio album. This song was finally released for Digital Downloads on November 18, 2016.
This song also signifies Daft Punk’s final stage before they actually broke up in 2021. The song for its remarkable gestures was ranked as the Song of the Year 2018. Also, the song was ranked number 4 on the table of the Billboard Hot 100 till April 2015.
According to records, the song ‘I Feel It Coming’ has sold a handsome 6,000,000 copies in the United States of America alone. This particular song was declared to be a ‘Gem of Ibiza Disco Love, and it was surprisingly fresh and sunny.
| Genre | Disco-pop |
| Year of Release | 2016 (Nov) |
B Tier
Average SongsB tier of our Weeknd Song Tier List includes the Mediocre songs of The Weeknd, these songs however got a hand full of fame but failed to make space in the listeners’ hearts due to several reasons.
The Weeknd was criticized for many flaws within his video of the particular songs, some time of copying the music of other artists, however, he proved some of these allegations wrong with proofs, but these songs got affected in the process of their infancy, as they could get the fame and the hype they could have had if things were managed smoothly. So now we will classify them in accordance with the B tier that includes the songs not too good but also not bad at all.
Tell your Friends
This song was a part of Weeknd’s Second Studio Album named ‘Beauty Behind the Madness. The Weeknd got the expertise of Kayne West, Christopher Pope, Carl Marshall, Robert Holmes, etc.
It was certified as the Gold award by Music Canada for 40,000 units sold and similarly, a Platinum Certification is given to it by the RIAA for 1,000,000 units sold in the United States alone. This song of The Weekend is a spotlight on some of the regretful moments in his life.
| Genre | Alternative R&B |
| Year of Release | 2014 |
Privilege
The Privilege was released by The Weeknd in his relatively slow album named My Dear Melancholy. This album has a reputation of being the return of Weeknd’s Darker style of his earlier work, such as the 2012 release Trilogy and Kiss Land, etc.
The album as a whole got pretty favorable Reviews. Although the rating of the song wasn’t that high. The album was well-praised by some of the renounced music audiences of the time. In accordance with ABC News, the song was ranked at 20 Th number in a list of best songs of 2018. This song was streamed more than 26 million times on the first day of its release on Apple Music.
| Genre | Alternative R&B, Electropop |
| Year of Release | 2018 (March) |
The Morning
The Morning was one of the recognized songs of the album House of Balloons, it was the debut Mixtape of The Weeknd. This mixtape was released free of cost on Weeknd’s Website. The videography of this song was done entirely in the Canadian Capital Toronto. Interestingly, the Weeknd named the album after the nickname he gave to his home back in Toronto.
Although the song was hyped initially but later on it was heavily criticized for its Dark theme and Highly Lyrical content. This song has elements of soul, trip-hop, indie rock, dream pop, etc. This song video unleashed the Weeknd’s Drug usage and Experiences with love and heartbreaks etc.
| Genre | Alternative R&B |
| Year of Release | 2011 (March) |
Angel
The song Angel is a part of the album, Beauty Behind the Madness, which is one of his studio albums. The album was overall rated at 7.2, which was sort of below average for a singer of this caliber. The track is beautifully crafted and it has that wonderful upbeat raw bassline that grabs one’s attention with its well-matched retro pop hook.
| Genre | R&B |
| Year of Release | 2015 (Aug) |
Wanderlust
The song Wanderlust was a basic Highlight of his album, kiss land. Although these aren’t included in the top songs and albums or The Weeknd, the song Wanderlust still stood out from the rest. Its success was more in Canada as the Canadian Hot 100 ranked it at position 45. This song was the sixth single off The Weeknd from the album kiss land.
| Genre | R&B/Soul, Dance/Electronic |
| Year of Release | 2013 |
C Tier
Below Average songs of WeekndThe C tier includes the worst and maybe the most hated song of The Weekend. These songs have specific reasons to be hated at a particular time of their release. They are actually the potential harmer.
These songs have at least a thing or a half good about them, that’s why they lie in this tier, or else they would have been a part of the next one. This is most probably the second last category of the tier list.
Losers
Loser became a big object of criticism because of the words The Weeknd choose for it, even the song was so degraded that it didn’t even meet Wikipedia’s Notability Guidelines. The song in its early time was used by school or high school students to bully others and to openly criticize the education system in the country. Famous lyrical lines of this song were spray-painted on the different walls of schools and colleges in the US.
| Genre | Dance/Electronics, R&B/Soul |
| Year of Release | 2015 |
Outside
This song belongs to the album Echoes of Silence, This song is one of the very old released by The Weekend. The official YouTube video of this song host 11 million views. The song’s success was short-lived and could not enjoy its peak even at any stage.
This song belongs to the early stage of his career and he badly failed at it. Despite all his hard work for the album and the song, in particular, the song wasn’t hyped at all, instead, he faced heavy criticism for the song and was mostly hit on with rotten tomatoes.
| Genre | R&B/Soul |
| Year of Release | 2011 |
Gone
Gone is a part of Weeknd’s Album called Thursday, The song at the time of release was openly criticized for its extraordinary length and was often made fun of by calling it a story instead. Weekend accepted once in an interview that it was more of a goodbye letter or goodbye words instead of calling it a song. Thus it didn’t get a higher position on the tier list.
| Genre | R&B/Soul, UK R&B |
| Year of Release | 2011 |
Prisoner
This song of Weeknd was no different, the artist received heavy criticism over this song, the main cause of which was that the theme of this song was declared to be dark and tortured.
The Weeknd was assisted by Lana Del Ray as a secondary vocalist, her input at the same time with The Weeknd is always put into question, as both of these artists shared the flair of being Dramatic, which is considered to take the track at either of the two extremes, which is either perfect or completely unbearable to listen.
| Genre | Pop R&B |
| Year of Release | 2015 (Aug) |
Thursday
Thursday is just the second mixtape by the Weeknd, the album consists of fewer samples than the album such as the house of balloons previously released. The song is however blessed with the guest appearance of Drake, but it could help Weeknd get a lot of praise for this song. The style of this song is pretty unconventional. The songs made the same mistake of exposing the Weeknd to the same use of drugs, libertinism, newfound fame, etc.
| Genre | Alternative R&B, Post Punk |
| Year of Release | 2011 (Aug) |
D tier
Flop Weeknd SongsD-tier normally includes those songs of the Weeknd, which are inarguably the worst song of the artist and there’s no grey region in between to decide, everything is very clearly visible in black and white.
Just as we were breaking down the tier list, we move into the final category which is called the D Tier, this category includes those songs that led to the defamation of the Canadian Super Star, these songs have quite a bit of reason to be a part of this list.
Live for
The song live for was a clear music failure for the artist The Weeknd, this song was from his album kiss land. The song featured Drake and the video part of the song seemed to have been cared for more than the music actually, the song’s official video was nominated for the Much Music Video award for the video of the year.
| Genre | Pop |
| Year of Release | 2013 |
The Morning
The song belongs to the album, House of Balloons, which was one of the earliest releases of the Weeknd. The cause leading to this failure was the excessive use of drugs and exposure to sex life. The Morning could only get up to some 50 million views to date, which is a very small number talking about The Weeknd’s ordinary number of views on a good song.
| Genre | R&B/Soul |
| Year of Release | 2011 |
Tears in the Rain
Tears in the Rain are more of a soothing music-centered song initially and then followed by lyrical a song. The video of the song and the song itself just showed two very distinct things, and this thing was admitted by the Weeknd himself on YouTube and after some time after the song’s release, the same song was reposted on YouTube with a different Video, in which Weeknd clearly said that the first launched video was not up to mark and standards.
| Genre | R&B, Pop |
| Year of Release | 2013 |
Comparison Table
| Name | Tier | Genre | Year of Release |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blinding Lights | S | Synthwave, Electropop | 2019 (Nov) |
| I Feel it Coming | S | Disco-pop | 2016 (Nov) |
| Wicked Games | S | Quiet Storm, Alternatively R&B | 2011 |
| The Hills | S | Trap music, R&B/Soul, Pop, Alternative R&B | 2015 (May) |
| After Hours | S | R&B New wave, Dream Pop | 2020 (March) |
| Call Out my Name | S | R&B | 2018 (April) |
| Save Your Tears | A | Synth-pop, Synthwave | 2020(Aug) |
| In Your Eyes | A | Disco, Synth-pop | 2020 (March) |
| Often | A | Alternative R&B, EDM | 2014 (July) |
| Can't Feel My Face | A | Funk | 2015(June) |
| Feel it Coming | A | Disco-pop | 2016 (Nov) |
| Tell your Friends | B | Alternative R&B | 2014 |
| Privilege | B | Alternative R&B, Electropop | 2018 (March) |
| The Morning | B | Alternative R&B | 2011 (March) |
| Angel | B | R&B | 2015 (Aug) |
| Wanderlust | B | R&B/Soul, Dance/Electronic | 2013 |
| Losers | C | Dance/Electronics, R&B/Soul | 2015 |
| Outside | C | R&B/Soul | 2011 |
| Gone | C | R&B/Soul, UK R&B | 2011 |
| Prisoner | C | Pop R&B | 2015 (Aug) |
| Thursday | C | Alternative R&B, Post Punk | 2011 (Aug) |
| Live for | D | Pop | 2013 |
| The Morning | D | R&B/Soul | 2011 |
| Tears in the Rain | D | R&B, Pop | 2013 |
Verdict
On a conclusive note in the article The Weeknd Song Tier List, we classified The Weeknd song on the basis of general crowd reaction when they hear the song, the fame of those particular songs depending upon their view on YouTube, it is rating, and other influential figure talking in a good or bad way about it. We also did a very honest Music analysts review of all these songs and then explained the reason for mentioning a respective song in a particular Tier.
The S tier includes the undoubtfully best song of the Weeknd, which is followed by the A tier, which includes those songs that lack the slightest of edge for not being included in the S tier. The B tier has relatively better than Mediocre level songs and then the C and D tiers are the lower Mediocre and the worst songs of the artist.