The Weeknd Debuts New Song Sampling Neon Genesis Evangelion Theme in Japan

The Weeknd debuted an unreleased new song that samples a piece of music from anime history, premiering the track live at the opening of the Asian leg of his After Hours Til Dawn tour.

Performing Friday (Sept. 19) at Belluna Dome in Saitama, near Tokyo, the singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, gave the song its live debut alongside Japanese singer Yoko Takahashi. The track, dubbed “Tokyo,” incorporates elements of “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” the 1995 J-pop song Takahashi recorded as the opening theme to the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.

During the segment, Takahashi also performed “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” in full as Tesfaye stepped back and watched from the rear of the stage.

The performance was staged as a multimedia collaboration. The accompanying visuals were directed by Yoko Taro, the creative director behind the NieR video game series, and drew on imagery from both Neon Genesis Evangelion and 2017’s NieR: Automata. Tesfaye credited the piece on social media only as “Presented by YOKO TARO ft. YOKO TAKAHASHI.”

It is the second time on the current tour that Tesfaye has debuted a new song tied to the city he was performing in. In April, he premiered an unreleased track, widely dubbed “Rio,” with Brazilian star Anitta during a stop in Rio de Janeiro.

Both debuts are notable given that Tesfaye spent recent years signaling he might retire the Weeknd name entirely, having billed his 2025 album Hurry Up Tomorrow as his final release under the moniker.

The After Hours Til Dawn tour has run since 2022, when it launched behind his 2020 album After Hours and its 2022 follow-up Dawn FM. The Weeknd has notched five No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200: Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), Starboy (2016), the My Dear Melancholy EP (2018), After Hours (2020), and this year’s Hurry Up Tomorrow. His Hot 100 No. 1s include “Can’t Feel My Face,” “Starboy,” “Heartless,” “Save Your Tears,” and “Blinding Lights,” which Billboard named the No. 1 song on its all-time Hot 100 chart.