"The Morning" is a song by the Canadian singer-songwriter
the Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, romance, and ...
which serves as the fourth track from his debut mixtape, ''
House of Balloons
''House of Balloons'' is the debut mixtape by Canadian singer the Weeknd. It was released on March 21, 2011, by the artist's own record label XO. The mixtape was released for free on the Weeknd's website and was the subject of increased media d ...
'' (2011). It was written by the Weeknd alongside its producers,
Doc McKinney
Martin "Doc" McKinney (born August 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American record producer and songwriter. McKinney is a Grammy-award-winning producer. He was formerly one half of the duo (now solo act) Esthero. His work with fellow Toronto artist The ...
and
Illangelo
Carlo Montagnese (born July 29, 1987), known professionally as Illangelo, is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, musician and mixing engineer from Calgary, Alberta, who came to attention as long-time collaborator of the Weeknd. A Grammy Aw ...
. In 2012, the song was
remastered and released on the Weeknd's compilation album, ''
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...
'' (2012).
Background
"The Morning" was first uploaded to YouTube by the Weeknd under the username "xoxxxoooxo" in early December 2010 alongside "What You Need" and "Loft Music".
A demo of the song that had a different instrumental than its final version surfaced in late 2011.
"The Morning" was included in the 2019 film
''Uncut Gems'', in which the Weeknd appeared in and performed the track live.
Critical reception
''Pitchfork'' placed the track at number 15 for its top 100 songs of 2011, citing its "large and rich" production along with Tesfaye's soft vocals, stating that it messes with how you would expect R&B tracks to sound. ''Pitchfork'' would later place it at number 115 of its top 200 songs of the 2010s, regarding it as "the greatest song the Weeknd ever made" and calling it the "pop
''American'' ''Psycho''".
''Rolling Stone'' would declare the track as the Weeknd's 11th best song, citing that the song is a "suprisingly radiant hustler's anthem" and calling it "expected Weeknd club sleaze."
Charts
Certifications
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Morning (The Weeknd song), The
2011 songs
The Weeknd songs
Songs written by the Weeknd
Songs written by Illangelo
Songs written by Doc McKinney
Song recordings produced by Illangelo
XO (record label) singles
Song recordings produced by Doc McKinney