The Weeknd has released his fifth studio album, Dawn FM, which includes several guest stars lending their vocals, poems, and verses to the project.
Among them are hip-hop artists Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator. However, actor and comedian Jim Carrey has a slightly more significant role on the new Weeknd album.
Carrey, known for his many TV and film roles over the years, features as a DJ-host and narrator on several songs across Dawn FM to help out with The Weeknd’s project.
Carrey appears in three songs on Dawn FM
The arrival of the new album Dawn FM brought plenty of interesting aspects, including rumors of The Weeknd dating Angelina Jolie and Jim Carrey’s guest-starring role.
The actor and comedian rose to fame with standup comedy, Mad TV, and movies such as Dumb & Dumber, God Almighty, The Mask, and Liar Liar. He recently popped up in a guest role last year for Saturday Night Live as a then-presidential candidate, Joe Biden. Carrey will reprise his role as Dr. Ivo Robotnik in this year’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2.
He’s also on the recently-released pop album from singer The Weeknd. Carrey isn’t singing or rapping on the songs but instead provides narration. His words of wisdom come on three songs, including the title track Dawn FM, Out of Time, and Phantom Regret by Jim.
Carrey closes out the Dawn FM album with a poem he narrates over a mellow background track on the song Phantom Regret by Jim. He’s also credited as a songwriter on the track credits.
“You are tuned to Dawn FM, the middle of nowhere on your dial. So sit back and unpack. You may be here a while,” Carrey starts his poem with.
“Now that all future plans have been postponed and it’s time to look back on the things you thought you owned, do you remember them well?” Carrey asks.
The narration plays in with the apparent theme of Weeknd’s new album, which includes an aged version of the singer on the album cover and has him reflecting on the final part of his life.
Carrey was ‘thrilled’ to be part of The Weeknd’s project
Four days before the album officially dropped online, Jim Carrey tweeted about getting to hear the work he appeared on alongside Abel aka The Weeknd.
“I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony,” Carrey tweeted with a promotional clip for Dawn FM.
The Weeknd told GQ in an exclusive interview that he and Carrey met on his 30th birthday after texting back and forth with one another.
“We’d been texting prior to that. And then, on my 30th birthday, he surprised me. He just pulled up to my crib and took me to breakfast,” The Weeknd told GQ. “He lived literally like two buildings down from me. He had a telescope, and I had a telescope. He was like, ‘Where do you live? What floor do you live on?’ I was like, blah, blah, blah. And we looked out the windows on our telescopes and we could see each other.”
While Carrey’s appearance may have surprised some, it’s certainly not the first time comedians have collaborated with musicians on their albums.
In 2013, Wale worked with Jerry Seinfeld on the Album About Nothing. Other comedians have also provided skits or vocals for hip hop songs, including Chris Rock on Kanye West’s Blame Game and Cedric the Entertainer on Jay-Z’s song Threats.
The Weeknd held livestream experience for Dawn FM
In addition to Carrey’s appearance, Lil Wayne drops a verse on I Heard You’re Married while Tyler, The Creator helps out with Here We Go… Again. The Weeknd’s new album Dawn FM is currently available on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, and other digital music services.
Before the album arrived, The Weeknd appeared in a livestream experience called 103.5 Dawn FM on various platforms to help introduce his latest work.
The event featured a crowd of individuals wearing futuristic plastic face masks as they danced to various songs. In addition, spoof commercial breaks for 103.5 Dawn FM, a fake radio station, were part of the experience.
Viewers can catch a replay of the livestream experience on the AmazonMusic Twitch channel until 9 p.m. Pacific Time on January 8.