The Weeknd has put out the official video for “Hong Kong,” his Cantonese-and-English single built on a 33-year-old Faye Wong ballad, and it moves the story from a stadium screen to a karaoke bar. The clip went up on his YouTube channel on November 12, 2026, with supermodel Ming Xi as his co-star.
It caps a fast three-week run. The song premiered on October 24 at Kai Tak Stadium, on the first of four Hong Kong nights on his After Hours til Dawn tour. A week later, on October 31, it was released as a single, at first only in Hong Kong.
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“Hong Kong” is not a light borrowing. It leans hard on both the music and the vocals of “Monsoon” (季候風), a ballad from Faye Wong’s 1993 album No Regrets. That is why the official credit line reads “Hong Kong (feat. 王菲季候風),” naming Wong and her original song together.
The writing credits show how much of the older record survives. Calvin Poon is listed as a composer next to Abel Tesfaye, and Salsa Chen and Yang Lee-deh share lyric credits. Production came from The Weeknd with his longtime collaborators Oscar Holter and Sage Skolfield, and the track runs 3:36. The single is issued by The Weeknd XO Music and marketed by Republic Records.
The film links run just as deep. The cover photo, an archival shot of the city, comes from cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who shot the 1994 film Chungking Express, the movie that made Faye Wong an art-house face far beyond Asia.
For a singer whose catalog has long nodded to 1980s synth-pop, the pairing makes sense. Cantopop in its peak years was one of the slickest pop machines in the world, and “Monsoon” gives him a ready-made hook with a whole city’s memory attached.
What the video shows
There are now two versions of the visuals. The first, screened behind him at the stadium shows, followed Chinese fashion influencer Wiwen Wang in driving scenes that call back to Hong Kong cinema. The new official cut adds Ming Xi and extra scenes in a karaoke bar.
Videographer Evan Larsen shot the footage in Mong Kok and on Hong Kong Island, and he has said in an interview that filming took about a week before the concert screening. The neon-and-night-drive look has drawn comparisons with Wong Kar-wai’s style.
That comparison is the clip’s strength and its risk. The references are clear and lovingly chosen, but a video that borrows a famous director’s mood can end up feeling like a tribute reel rather than a statement of its own. The karaoke setting helps here: it puts The Weeknd inside the culture the song comes from instead of just filming its skyline.
How it has done so far
The single reached No. 1 on the Hong Kong songs chart, No. 6 in Singapore and No. 7 in Malaysia. The live debut also pushed Faye Wong’s original back into the spotlight; according to a report on the release, “Monsoon” topped the rising charts at two major Chinese streaming services in late October, and The Weeknd’s own Instagram clip of the performance passed 18 million views.
That makes a three-step timeline worth keeping straight:
- October 24: live premiere at Kai Tak Stadium with the Wiwen Wang version of the video.
- October 31: single release, at first exclusive to Hong Kong.
- November 12: official music video with Ming Xi on YouTube.
His first Asian tour leg was booked to wrap in early November, but the record keeps moving. Fellow Canadian Drake is marking a milestone of his own this week, with Drake’s Take Care turning 15 on November 15, and there is more music news on our Entertainment page.
The official “Hong Kong” video runs alongside a 3:36 single that credits five writers across two languages and three decades.
Further reading
Image: Romain Pontida, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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