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The Weeknd’s São Paulo concert teaser used generative-AI tools including Midjourney, Runway Gen-3, Luma Dream Machine and Google Veo. Directed by visual artist YZA Voku, it promoted a September 7, 2024 YouTube livestream—not an AI-generated concert. The distinction matters: contemporary reporting identifies AI-generated imagery and video tools, but does not establish that every frame was generated by AI or that the livestream itself used AI.
Watch the teaser on The Weeknd’s official YouTube channel. The short promotional film frames the São Paulo concert as a feverish, darkly surreal journey: monstrous faces and masks, fire and lightning, shadowy figures with burning heads, a car sinking underwater, and a figure wading into the water. Other fleeting images include a neon cross or grave-like forms, robed figures, reaching hands, sparse trees and temples, screaming faces, and glimpses of The Weeknd.
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The imagery echoes the artist’s established dark, neon-gothic visual language. That is a description of the finished film, not evidence that an AI system independently devised or reproduced his artistic identity. YouTube’s announcement identified YZA Voku as the trailer’s director and said it featured AI-generated images.
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What the teaser promoted
The film advertised a YouTube livestream of The Weeknd’s concert in São Paulo, Brazil, scheduled for September 7, 2024, on his official YouTube channel. It was a concert-promotion teaser. It is not evidence that the live performance, stage visuals, or broadcast were generated with AI.
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Who made it, and which tools were named?
Spanish visual artist YZA Voku directed the teaser. The Weeknd shared it through his social channels, and XO Records co-founder Lamar C. Taylor was also acknowledged in the project’s promotion. Google DeepMind creative lead Matthieu Lorrain publicly described Google’s participation as a collaboration exploring generative media, according to VentureBeat’s August 23, 2024 report.
- Midjourney: named for generating still imagery.
- Runway Gen-3: named among the tools used for animation or video generation.
- Luma Dream Machine: also named for animation or video generation.
- Google Veo: identified as an AI video-generation tool. In the 2024 report, access to Veo was described as limited or invitation-only.
This is the reported toolchain, not a shot-by-shot production log. The available account does not specify which system generated each image or clip, how the tools were combined, or how much conventional editing and finishing followed. The teaser’s credits and contemporary reporting support saying that it used generative-AI imagery and video tools; they do not support saying that one model produced a finished film without human work.
What “made with AI” does—and doesn’t—tell us
Generative tools can supply source images or short moving clips while people make the creative and technical decisions around them: choosing concepts, writing prompts, selecting outputs, assembling shots, compositing layers, editing, adjusting color and timing, and designing sound. The reporting names AI tools, but does not document the precise mix of those tasks in this production. “AI-assisted” or “made with AI tools” is therefore more accurate than “entirely AI-generated.”
There is also no verified indication in the cited reporting that AI generated the concert’s music, was used during the performance, or formed part of the livestream. The teaser’s production should not be conflated with the event it advertised.
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The project offered a high-profile example of generative imagery and video being used in mainstream music promotion, rather than only in demos or experimental art. It arrived amid wider disagreements about AI companies’ training practices, consent, compensation, copyright and the effect of automation on creative work. A polished celebrity campaign shows that artists and production teams are adopting these tools; by itself, it does not resolve those disputes or prove that human roles have been replaced.
A dated toolchain, not a snapshot of today’s models
The named systems refer to the production as reported in 2024. Their capabilities and availability have since changed. Google’s current Veo page describes Veo 3.1 and features including native audio and reference-image controls; those present-day features are not evidence of what the teaser’s Veo access could do in 2024. Likewise, current Runway materials list newer models, while the teaser report specifically named Runway Gen-3. Do not read today’s product descriptions backward into this project.
The same caution applies to access: the report’s description of Veo as restricted reflects the situation at the time, not a statement about availability in 2026. The strongest conclusion remains a limited one: Voku directed a promotional film that used multiple generative-AI tools for imagery and video, while the exact division of labor and the role of any conventional production techniques were not fully documented.
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