The Weeknd announces new single Take My Breath

The Weeknd has released his new single Take My Breath and unveiled its accompanying music video.

Released this Friday (Aug 6), it's the first material the singer has shared from the follow-up to his Number 1 album After Hours, which featured the UK Number 1 single Blinding Lights.

Watch the Take My Breath music video below: 

Take My Breath was co-produced by The Weeknd with Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin and Oscar Holter.

Taking to Twitter ahead of its release, The Weeknd teased the song with a near two-minute snippet, carried by blasting 80s synths and vocodored vocals that carry a lot of similarities to the work of French dance droids Daft Punk (who the Weeknd memorably collaborated with on 2016 album Starboy).

The star confirmed the song's title and release date, sharing a preview of the song in an NBC promo clip for the Team USA Women’s Track & Field team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

8.6.21 new single ... #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/6KPDHV1L1m

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) August 3, 2021

MORE: The Weeknd's Top 20 biggest songs

The Weeknd previously spoke about the "politically charged" material he had been working on for his fifth album last year following After Hours' release at the beginning of 2020. 

Upon its release, After Hours became The Weeknd's second Number 1 album on the Official Albums Chart. Its biggest hit, the Max Martin-produced Blinding Lights, spent a mammoth eight weeks at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart. 

According to Official Charts Company data, the songs from the After Hours era have tallied a combined 651.5 million streams in the UK. The album contained a further two Top 10 hits for The Weeknd in the form of lead single Heartless (Number 10) and Save Your Tears (Number 2) which was boosted by a remix with Ariana Grande.