Dec 5, 2025 4:00pm PT The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s ‘Timeless’ Started as a Backstage Jam — Now It’s a Global Smash By Mike Wass Plus Icon Mike Wass Latest The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s ‘Timeless’ Started as a Backstage Jam — Now It’s a Global Smash 10 minutes ago How BigXthaPlug Took Things ‘All the Way’ and Became the Hip-Hop Disruptor of the Year 2 hours ago Inside the ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Soundtrack: Turning Huntr/x Into a Real-World Phenomenon and Why EJAE Cried Recording ‘Golden’ 1 day ago See All for Live Nation “Timeless,” the brooding trap collaboration between the Weeknd and Playboi Carti, made its live debut before it was actually completed. According to XO co-founder Amir “Cash” Esmailian, it was backstage at the Weeknd’s “One Night Only” concert in São Paulo that the Canadian artist, aka Abel Tesfaye, said, “Let’s perform the song we worked on today.” It was a high-profile debut, witnessed by thousands in the stadium and on the livestream. “We knew we had to capitalize,” says Republic’s Marleny Reyes.
