The second episode of the long-awaited show The Idol premiered on June 11. The episode featured two new songs from The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, who plays Tedros, a self-help guru and cult leader. The three new tracks come after he took to his Instagram to tease the latest drop. He wrote in the Instagram post, “I was planning on dropping the whole soundtrack for idol by the finale, but I’m too hyped…Instead, I wanna drop new music from the show every week with each episode.”
The titles of the three songs which were released on June 12 are “Family (with Suzanna Son),” “Devil’s Paradise” by MIKE DEAN, and “Double Fantasy” featuring Future. “Double Fantasy” was also released as a single before the show’s premiere on June 4, along with “Popular” featuring Playboy Carti and Madonna. Both of these songs were co-produced by Tesfaye and Mike Dean.
On June 9, the same date as Tesfaye’s Instagram announcement, he also released “The Lure (Main Theme)” and “World Class Sinner/I’m a Freak.” If you tuned into the first episode of The Idol, you may be familiar with the latter. Tesfaye produced The song, performed by Lily Rose-Depp, who plays Jocelyn on the show.
According to Nylon, the entire soundtrack for The Idol Vol. 1 will drop on June 30. Tesfaye is the creative mind behind the anticipated soundtrack. Fans of The Weekend are in for a treat as we’ll hear much of the music we love with more features. It’s speculated that some features *may* include Blackpink’s Jennie, who plays Dyanne, and Troye Sivan, who plays Xander on the show, because both were tagged in Tesfaye’s Instagram post, but there’s been no confirmation yet.
Tesfaye and Sam Levinson teamed up to create The Idol after Tesfaye pitched the idea. The show’s production was rocky after Amy Seimetz, the original director, and showrunner Joe Epstein, left. There wasn’t any confirmation of why they chose to exit. Levinson stepped in as director after their departure, which caused significant controversy.
According to W Magazine, Levinson stated, “Abel came to us with a pitch. He said something I’ll always remember: If I wanted to start a cult, I could. What he meant is that his fans were so loyal and devoted that they would follow him anywhere.” Levinson goes on to say this is the idea that inspired the concept of The Idol, which asks, “What happens when a pop star falls for the wrong guy and no one speaks up?”
The show has undoubtedly caused an uproar. We’ll watch how the soundtrack and controversial show come together in the coming weeks.