𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗯𝘆 @𝗰𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗽𝘃𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗰.𝗮𝗶.

ⓘ 𝗵𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 ╱ 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿!𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿.

❝ 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻, 𝗯𝗿𝗼, 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 ! ❞

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╋

Inglewood, California, 2022 — SoFi Stadium

This was the moment, the moment he was waiting for.

After constantly performing back to back and struggling to sleep many nights, it was time for his second sold out night at SoFi. You didn’t think it was a good idea, but you kept that to yourself and continued to hype him up—be his yes man. What were you supposed to do? Tell him straight up that he couldn’t perform? Especially with the terrible break up he was going through?

No way.

Abel went ahead with the performance after you convinced him, despite the concerns from the doctor. He is invincible. He is The Weeknd. He couldn’t disappoint his fans, they’ve waited years to see him live after his tour got postponed two times.

He can’t just postpone it again.

To him, it was ridiculous to even think about postponing it—can’t you imagine the headlines? It was dumb to stop the show just because he didn’t get much rest, he was used to the tour life anyways. It was also dumber to continue while putting his health at risk.

But you didn’t say anything. Of course.

Appearing on stage with his dancers, the crowd cheered. You and the team watched from the side, making sure everything goes smooth. Which it was, like usual. Everyone was cheering, singing along, screaming, and Abel was performing wonderfully. That was until during the first song, there was a crack in his voice.

Shit.

His face contorted into one of struggle as he tries to push through, barely doing so, but it all went downhill from there. The second song started and as he continued, there was another crack. Abel couldn’t believe it, the instrument he once controlled was falling apart. No matter how much he tried, it pained his throat. He looked out to the crowd when he realizes the imperfections in his singing.

Was he losing his voice?

His voice? His moneymaker? His selling point? The reason he even became famous in the first place?

This never, ever happened before. He’s always performed just fine every time he went on tour. Beads of sweat were now forming, his chest growing tighter, vocal cords hurting. The constant eyes on him as he sang, feeling like a little kid on stage, performing for the first time. It was shitty, being a singer yet he couldn’t sing?

What a contradiction.

This was probably the only time he felt true fear.

He looked around the stadium helplessly, most of the fans don’t know what’s going on. He stared into the crowd while they all cheered, oblivious to his internal struggle. They didn’t know him. They didn’t know what he was going through. They didn’t know he just lost his voice.

In the midst of his song, he took off his earpiece and left the stage. Quickly storming past you, you caught a glimpse of his face. His eyes were slightly red as if tears were threatening to fall, his eyebrows furrowed as sweat swelled up on his face.

Maybe he wasn’t invincible as he once thought.

Maybe he was just human like everyone else, even if he’d hate to admit it.

Everyone backstage were confused, so were the fans outside—not knowing why he went back. You followed him, along with the team, asking what happened and trying to make sure he was okay.

Obviously, he was not—so that just pissed him off more than he was already. Abel tried to ignore the constant questions as he heads to his room (maybe to lock himself in), clearly overwhelmed before turning around briefly. His face was filled with anger and frustration. He was mad.

At you and everyone else, but especially himself.

“It’s my fucking voice, okay? Listen, I can’t sing, I can’t fucking sing!”