The Night The Weeknd Took Hong Kong Back to 1993

On 24 October 2026, The Weeknd opened his four-night run at Kai Tak Stadium with a surprise. The Canadian star behind “Blinding Lights”, whose tour had sold 7.5 million tickets, unveiled “Hong Kong”, sampling Faye Wong’s voice from her 1993 Cantonese hit 《季候風》 (gwai3 hau6 fung1, “Monsoon”).

As he sang, Hong Kong filled the stadium screens: the city at daybreak, a hawker roasting chestnuts, tiny shops tucked into narrow lanes. There were seafront flats in Repulse Bay, office-lined streets in Central, Mong Kok guesthouses and neon signs. Victoria Harbour glittered at night, but I’m glad the chestnut hawker made the cut. If you’ve lived in Hong Kong, that’s a scene you can almost smell.

Wong was a fitting choice. Born in Beijing, she made her name in Hong Kong singing in Cantonese when the city set the pace for Chinese pop. Her Mandarin records later won her fans across Taiwan, mainland China and beyond.

For Hongkongers born in the 1970s and now living overseas, a few bars of “Monsoon” could bring back a whole afternoon in 1993. For their children and grandchildren, the feeling might be pride: a star they already knew had put Hong Kong on the big screen, and he’d thought to include the little shops too.

Gigantic Crab