Songfacts®:

• "The Abyss" is a song about love teetering on the edge of oblivion - The Weeknd clings to his partner as the world dissolves into chaos around them. Time is running out, love is slipping away, and every shared moment becomes almost painfully precious.
• The title "The Abyss" doesn't appear in the lyrics, but it captures the song's brooding sense of inevitable loss.
• This haunting ballad sees The Weeknd reunite with Lana Del Rey, marking another chapter in their long-running creative partnership. Del Rey enters in the song's final stretch, offering up an ethereal outro.
• The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey, friends since 2012, have spent years weaving their voices together. They first collaborated on his 2015 track "Prisoner" from The Weeknd's sophomore album Beauty Behind the Madness. Their creative partnership continued with several studio sessions that same year, producing "Stargirl Interlude" and "Party Monster" for his Starboy album. In 2017, they joined forces once more on the title track of Del Rey's Lust For Life album.
• Co-written with Mike Dean and Patrick Greenaway, "The Abyss" takes a stark, stripped-down approach. It begins with a fragile piano melody before swelling with mournful synths, creating a thick atmosphere of despair and finality.
  
  Dean, a heavyweight producer with credits spanning Kanye West to Travis Scott, co-produced 18 tracks on Hurry Up Tomorrow and mastered the entire album.
  
  Greenaway is a guitarist and musician who has played guitar on some of The Weeknd's tours and contributed to his music. His resumé includes reimagining "Call Out My Name" as a synth arrangement and "Dancing In The Flames" as an acoustic ballad.
• Fans got their first taste of "The Abyss" when The Weeknd previewed it on X on July 23, 2024. He gave it its live debut on September 7 in São Paulo, Brazil.