Beauty Behind the Madness

Beauty Behind the Madness
File:The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness.png
Studio album by The Weeknd
Released	August 28, 2015 (2015-08-28)
Recorded	October 2013 – July 2015
Studio	Conway Recording Studios, (Hollywood, California)
Genre	Alternative R&B R&B pop
Length	65:06
Label	XO Republic
Producer	The Weeknd (exec.) Jason Quenneville (exec.) Illangelo (exec.) Max Martin Danny Boy Styles Stephan Moccio Ben "Billions" Diehl Million $ Mano Ali Payami Mike Dean Kanye West Labrinth Che Pope Peter Svensson Omar Riad
The Weeknd chronology
Kiss Land (2013)Kiss Land2013 Beauty Behind the Madness (2015)
Singles from Beauty Behind the Madness
"Often" Released: July 31, 2014 "The Hills" Released: May 27, 2015 "Can't Feel My Face" Released: June 8, 2015 "In the Night" Released: November 17, 2015 "Acquainted" Released: November 17, 2015

Beauty Behind the Madness is the second studio album by Canadian singer The Weeknd. It was released on August 28, 2015, by XO, and Republic Records. The album features guest appearances from Labrinth, Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey, while the production on the album was handled by Illangelo, Mike Dean, Danny Boy Styles, and Max Martin, among others.

The album was supported by five singles: "Often", "The Hills", "Can't Feel My Face", "In the Night" and "Acquainted". "The Hills" and "Can't Feel My Face" both reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Beauty Behind the Madness also includes the Academy Award-nominated song "Earned It", which was released in December 2014 as the lead single from the soundtrack to Fifty Shades of Grey. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Beauty Behind the Madness was the tenth best-selling album of 2015 with 1.5 million copies sold worldwide. It has sold over 2 million copies.

Background

On September 10, 2013, The Weeknd released his debut album Kiss Land. It was promoted by three singles: "Kiss Land", "Belong to the World", "Live For" featuring Drake, and The Weeknd's The Fall tour beginning during September 2013. Kiss Land received generally positive reviews from music critics. Kiss Land debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, selling 96,000 copies, just two thousand copies short of Keith Urban's Fuse, which took the number one spot on the week.

In 2013, in an interview with MTV, following the release of his debut album, The Weeknd spoke of his compilation album Trilogy, as the first chapter of his life and [Kiss Land] as the second chapter. He described his first two releases, saying:

Trilogy was more of a claustrophobic body of work, before it was released I hadn't left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life in one setting, that's probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that's what my life felt like. It felt like one long song. Kiss Land is the story after Trilogy – it's pretty much the second chapter of my life. The narrative takes place after my first flight; it's very foreign, very Asian-inspired. When people ask me, "Why Japan?" I simply tell them it's the furthest I've ever been from home. It really is a different planet.

Following the release of his debut album Kiss Land, The Weeknd has been appearing in numerous soundtracks; including the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, contributing "Devil May Cry" and featuring on "Elastic Heart" by Sia, released as the second single from the soundtrack, and the song "Love Me Harder" was released as a duet between The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, and became a commercial success.

On June 26, 2014, The Weeknd has announced that he will be headlining the King of the Fall tour, essentially a mini-tour across America in September and October 2014. ScHoolboy Q and Jhené Aiko were confirmed as support acts. The announcement came on the day after The Weeknd released his new song "Often" on SoundCloud, leading to speculation the tour will unveil more new material from him. On December 23, 2014, "Earned It" was released as a single from the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). The song has peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

On July 5, 2015, Ed Sheeran revealed on Beats 1 that he had worked with The Weeknd on his forthcoming album. Sheeran also said that Kanye West would feature in this collaboration on the album. On July 9, 2015, The Weeknd announced that his second studio album would be titled Beauty Behind the Madness and shared the album artwork on Twitter.

Singles

The album's lead single, titled "Often" was released on July 31, 2014. The song peaked at number 59 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and has reached at number 69 on the Canadian Hot 100. The album's second single, "The Hills" was released on May 27, 2015. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 20 for the chart dated on June 13, 2015; it was the week's highest debut. Its debut was overwhelmingly powered by first-week digital download sales of 109,000 copies and 5.2 million domestic streams, aided by the simultaneous premiere of its music video on the single's release date. On the following week, the single declined by one position but earned the largest gain in streams on the chart. As of December 2015, "The Hills" had sold 2,402,019 copies in the country and has reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming The Weeknd's second number-one hit, and making him one of the few artists to replace themselves.

The album's third single, "Can't Feel My Face" was released on June 8, 2015, following the performance of the song by The Weeknd at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on the same day. The song debuted at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. It produced first-week digital sales of 93,000 units and garnered additionally 4.2 million US streams and 38 million airplay audiences. In its third week on the chart, the song reached number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it his third top 10 hit, and his second solo top 10 hit. Five weeks later, it reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, which became The Weeknd's first number-one hit on the chart; it returned to the top twice, becoming the sixth song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to do so, the first since 2011. It debuted at number 27 in Australia on June 20, before climbing to number 2 in July. As of December 2015, "Can't Feel My Face" has sold 2,141,841 copies in the country. "In the Night" was released as the album's fourth single in the United States on November 17, 2015, while it'll be released in the United Kingdom in 2016. "Acquainted" was released as the album's fifth single in the United States, being sent to urban contemporary stations on November 17, 2015. It was also released to rhythmic contemporary on February 16, 2016, and was set to impact contemporary hit radio on April 12, 2016, though its release to those stations did not happen.

Release

On July 4, 2015, The Weeknd headlined FVDED in the Park in Surrey, BC, Canada. On July 9, The Weeknd continued to promote the album by headlining summer music festivals, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, the Hard Summer Music Festival in Pomona, CA, the Summer Set Music and Camping Festival in Somerset, WI, Philadelphia's Made in America Festival, Austin City Limits in Austin, and Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival.

This followed the leak of three songs from the album in May 2015: "In the Night", "Can't Feel My Face", and a working version of "Acquainted" referred to as "Girls Born in the 90s" that was heavily reworked before release.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	B
Chicago Tribune
Entertainment Weekly	B
HipHopDX
NME	7/10
The Observer
Pitchfork Media	7.2/10
Rolling Stone
Spin	7/10

Upon its release, Beauty Behind the Madness received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a generally favorable score of 74, based on 26 reviews.

Accolades

Rolling Stone included the album in their list of favorite albums of the year, at fifth, saying "Tesfaye redefined what it means to be an R&B auteur with his breakthrough second LP. [...] It's just that kind of raw honesty that makes him such a revolutionary player." NME listed the album at 19 on its list of best albums of the year.

Beauty Behind the Madness won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album in 2015, while also winning the 'Outstanding Album' at the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards. Beauty Behind the Madness won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 58th Grammy Awards pre-telecast.

Commercial performance

On August 31, 2015, Billboard estimated that Beauty Behind the Madness would sell approximately 300,000 copies during the first week of its release in the United States. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 412,000 equivalent album units; it sold 326,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting its streaming activity and track sales. Its number-one debut gave The Weeknd his first number-one album. It remained atop the chart for the next two weeks and was the first album to spend three weeks at number one consecutively since Taylor Swift's 1989. The album also remained in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 for a total of 21 consecutive weeks so far. As of March 2016, Beauty Behind the Madness has sold 985,865 copies in the United States.

According to IFPI, Beauty Behind the Madness was the tenth best-selling album of 2015 worldwide.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Real Life"	Abel Tesfaye Jason "DaHeala" Quenneville Stephan Moccio	The Weeknd DaHeala Moccio	3:43
2.	"Losers" (featuring Labrinth)	Tesfaye Timothy McKenzie Carlo "Illangelo" Montagnese	The Weeknd Illangelo Labrinth Arranged by Gustave Rudman	4:41
3.	"Tell Your Friends"	Tesfaye Robert Holmes Christopher Pope Carl Marshall Montagnese Kanye West	Kanye West Omar Riad Tommy Illangelo Mike Dean	5:34
4.	"Often"	Tesfaye DaHeala Ahmad "Belly" Balshe Danny Schofield Sabahattin Ali Benjamin Diehl Ali Kocatepe Osman İşmen	The Weeknd Ben Billions DaHeala	4:11
5.	"The Hills"	Tesfaye Montagnese Emmanuel Nickerson Balshe	Mano 4 Treated Crew Illangelo	4:04
6.	"Acquainted"	Tesfaye DaHeala Schofield Montagnese Diehl	The Weeknd Illangelo Ben Billions DaHeala Danny Boy Styles	5:48
7.	"Can't Feel My Face"	Tesfaye Ali Payami Savan Kotecha Max Martin Peter Svensson	Martin Payami	3:36
8.	"Shameless"	Tesfaye Svensson Kotecha Payami Balshe	Martin Payami Svensson The Weeknd	4:13
9.	"Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)"	Tesfaye Moccio DaHeala Balshe	Moccio DaHeala	4:37
10.	"In the Night"	Tesfaye Balshe Payami Kotecha Svensson Martin	Martin Payami The Weeknd	3:55
11.	"As You Are"	Tesfaye Balshe Schofield DaHeala Montagnese	The Weeknd Illangelo DaHeala Danny Boy Styles	5:40
12.	"Dark Times" (featuring Ed Sheeran)	Tesfaye DaHeala Ed Sheeran	Illangelo	4:20
13.	"Prisoner" (featuring Lana Del Rey)	Tesfaye Elizabeth Grant Montagnese	Illangelo The Weeknd	4:34
14.	"Angel"	Tesfaye Moccio Schofield Diehl Zaman	The Weeknd Moccio	6:17
Total length:				65:06

Beauty Behind the Madness  – Japanese edition (bonus tracks)
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
15.	"Can't Feel My Face" (Martin Garrix Remix)	Tesfaye Payami Kotecha Martin Svensson	Martin Payami Martijn Garritsen	4:12
16.	"The Hills" (featuring Eminem)	Tesfaye Montagnese Emmanuel Nickerson Balshe	Mano 4 Treated Crew Illangelo	4:23
17.	"The Hills" (featuring Nicki Minaj)	Tesfaye Montagnese Emmanuel Nickerson Balshe	Mano 4 Treated Crew Illangelo	4:02
Total length:				81:43

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^[c]} signifies a remixer
• "Tell Your Friends" features additional vocals from Kanye West.
• "Angel" features additional vocals from Maty Noyes.

Sample credits

• "Tell Your Friends" contains samples of "Can't Stop" performed by Theophilus London featuring Kanye West from the album Vibes, "When I See It" performed by Kanye West, and "Can't Stop Loving You" by Soul Dog from the album Movin' On.
• "Often" contains samples of "Ben Gene Sana Mecburum" by Nükhet Duru

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2015)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	1
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	7
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)	10
Canadian Albums (Billboard)	1
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	2
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)	2
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)	12
French Albums (SNEP)	6
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	7
Greek Albums (IFPI)	38
Irish Albums (IRMA)	2
Italian Albums (FIMI)	21
Korean Albums (Gaon)	60
Korean International Albums (Gaon)	8
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)	1
Polish Albums (ZPAV)	21
Portuguese Albums (AFP)	7
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)	23
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	1
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	4
UK Albums (OCC)	1
UK R&B Albums (OCC)	1
US Billboard 200	1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)	1

Year-end charts

Chart (2015)	Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	15
Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)	2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	89
Canadian Albums (Billboard)	9
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	12
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)	82
French Albums (SNEP)	98
Mexican Albums (AMPROFON)	96
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	46
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	7
UK Albums (OCC)	26
US Billboard 200	13
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)	5

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Australia (ARIA)	Platinum	70,000
Austria (IFPI Austria)	Gold	7,500
Brazil (ABPD)	Gold	20,000
Canada (Music Canada)	2× Platinum	160,000
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)	Platinum	20,000
Mexico (AMPROFON)	Gold	30,000
Norway (IFPI Norway)	Gold	15,000
Sweden (GLF)	Platinum	40,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold	100,000
United States (RIAA)	3× Platinum	985,865
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Label
United States	August 28, 2015	CD digital download vinyl cassette	XO Republic

See also

• List of number-one albums of 2015 (Australia)
• List of number-one albums of 2015 (Canada)
• List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s
• List of UK R&B Chart number-one albums of 2015
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2015
• List of Billboard number-one R&B/Hip-Hop albums of 2015