Remember the year 2016? Doesn’t it seem like a completely different universe than today?

I bet you have good memories of slinking your way across the dancefloor to The Weeknd‘s “Starboy,” or hitting that replay button over and over again on whatever streaming service you were using because you couldn’t get enough of “I Feel It Coming” (I was still freeloading my music discoveries on YouTube around that time).

But what about “Die for You,” The Weeknd‘s single still lingering at the top of the charts week after week here in 2023?

Turns out, it’s yet another blessing from that social media app TikTok, which is simultaneously taking over the world and introducing youngsters to old and forgotten music (maybe its best attribute). You see, “Die for You” wasn’t released in 2023; it’s a song from The Weeknd’s 2016 album Starboy, released as its sixth single way back in September 2017, a year after the album’s release.

A chill, down-tempo ballad about the age-old theme of love, and wanting to make it happen, wanting to be with her so bad and knowing she wants the same. But perhaps the song’s protagonist goes a little overboard with his obsession when he cries out, “I would die for you, I would lie for you / Keep it real with you, I would kill for you…”

Kill?!? Ok, ok…I like to think he’s just being overdramatic and over-romantic, which you could still do in 2016 before everyone started taking everything uber-literally (try singing that line to your girl now and you might find the cops at your door). But hey, he’d die for you; isn’t that enough??

But a closer look reveals something even more universal: “Even though we’re goin’ through it / And it makes you feel alone / Just know that I would die for you…” Ugh, now I get it; this is a breakup. And he wants her back. And he thinks she wants him back, too. So maybe the cops really should be on alert.

I’ve written about The Weeknd before here at Pop Gazette, and I’ve been clear about his being my consistent favorite artist of the 2010s decade. I have good memories of the Starboy era (2016-2017), djing my regular club residency while still rockin’ hits from his 2015 album Beauty Behind the Madness, most notably the singles “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills” (at the club) and the addictive “In the Night” (at home).

When Starboy dropped the following year, excitement was high following the massive success of Beauty Behind the Madness, which topped the Billboard 200. And the Canadian prodigy came out of the gate strong with the title track, “Starboy” (essentially 2016’s equal to “The Hills”) and “I Feel It Coming” (the new album’s “In the Night”). “Party Monster” followed, and while it wasn’t the massive hit of Starboy‘s first two singles, it still managed a decent number of plays in my sets and garnered plenty of requests from my dance patrons.

The final three singles from Starboy – “Rockin’,” “Die for You,” and “Secrets” – came and went without much notice in the spring and fall of 2017 (“Die for You” charted the highest of the three, peaking at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100).

Originally, in 2017, “Die for You” was released to the rhythmic contemporary radio format, but for unknown reasons, a planned release to the mainstream’s coveted contemporary hit radio (CHR) format was canceled, relegating the track’s exposure to a limited number of urban stations, mostly in metro areas.

Fast-forward to 2021; “Die for You” gets included on the greatest hits compilation, The Highlights, in February, and then starts getting popular on TikTok in September, resulting in the production of an official music video in November. It was off to the races from there; the song finally hit CHR radio stations in August 2022 where it made its way back up the charts, eclipsing its 2017 chart performance with a new top-ten peak (at No. 6).

Starboy would eventually equal its predecessor’s success, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. But the rebirth and resurgence of one of its average-performing singles over a half-decade later serves as a memory of a forgotten time.

With its slick, synth-heavy, laid-back groove, I’ve played “Die for You” in the night’s final moments on occasion. With its breakup themes of sadness, loneliness and wanting, it works as a final breather for those clubgoers who’ve stuck it out to the end, closing out a steady but unsure night, while looking for love in the wrong place.