When The Weeknd dropped After Hours, he didn’t just give us an album—he gave us a whole cinematic universe. Two tracks, in particular, stood out like neon signs in a foggy retro dream: Blinding Lights and Save Your Tears. But in this battle of glittery heartbreak, which one really reigns supreme?
Chart Dominance & Streaming Power
Blinding Lights is the chart juggernaut. According to Billboard’s updated metrics, it spent approximately 90 weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 1 and refusing to let go of the charts like your clingiest ex. It’s not just successful—it’s officially Billboard’s “Greatest Hot 100 Hit of All Time” (based on their algorithmic cocktail of weeks on the chart, positions held, and overall impact).
Save Your Tears was no slouch either. It peaked at No. 1 (thanks to the Ariana Grande remix boost) and logged several months in the Hot 100’s upper tier. But it didn’t quite rival the endurance marathon of Blinding Lights.
Spotify Streams (as of late 2023):
- Blinding Lights – Over 3.9 billion streams.
- Save Your Tears (including remix) – Over 2.4 billion.
Edge: Blinding Lights, by a landslide—unless Save Your Tears goes viral in a few more alternate universes.
Awards & Industry Recognition
Blinding Lights racked up major hardware, including:
- iHeartRadio Song of the Year
- American Music Award for Favorite Pop Song
- MTV VMA for Best R&B Video
- IFPI’s Global Digital Single of the Year
Save Your Tears (especially the remix) also had its moment:
- iHeartRadio Best Collaboration
- JUNO Award for Single of the Year
- MTV Video Music Award nominations and a win for Best Editing
Neither won a Grammy, and many fans feel that the awards that year were mishandled, as if the Grammys were more interested in creating Twitter buzz than honoring true artistry.
Edge: Still Blinding Lights. It had the bigger global sweep, despite the Recording Academy playing hide-and-seek with common sense.
Sound & Style
Blinding Lights is pure neon adrenaline—an 80s synth-pop fever dream with Max Martin precision. It sounds like driving through a rain-slick cityscape at 2 a.m., with a heart full of regret and a tank full of synth.
Save Your Tears is more melancholic magic—a mid-tempo heartbreak waltz that combines retro polish with emotional vulnerability. It’s like crying at the disco in slow motion.
Blinding Lights makes you dance through your pain. Save Your Tears makes you sip wine and analyze your pain.
Edge: Tie. These are two moods, both essential to The Weeknd’s emotional multiverse.
Cultural Impact & Trendsetting
Blinding Lights didn’t just ride the ‘80s revival wave—it grabbed a keytar and led the charge. Post-2019, pop music saw a spike in retro-synth vibes across the board. Everyone from Dua Lipa to Doja Cat seemed to be raiding the same VHS tape archive.
While Save Your Tears was also steeped in nostalgic sounds, it felt more like a beautiful continuation than a trendsetter. Still iconic, but it didn’t quite detonate the genre the same way.
Plus, TikTok turned Blinding Lights into a generational dance challenge, with everyone from bored teens to bewildered boomers hitting that elbow move in unison.
Edge: Blinding Lights—its influence lit up an entire era of pop.
Visuals & Artistic Direction
The Super Bowl Halftime Show performance of Blinding Lights was legendary: a cinematic blitz of red suits, mirrors, and backup dancers straight out of a Jordan Peele horror remix of The Twilight Zone. It gave the song a second life, going viral all over again.
Save Your Tears had that bizarre awards show performance with prosthetics and eerie cult-like cheerleaders. Some fans dubbed it “surrealist pop theater,” others just called it “avant-garde plastic surgery nightmare.”
The visuals were purposeful though—part of The Weeknd’s extended After Hours storyline that explored fame, vanity, and decay in LA’s underbelly. It was art, baby. Weird art. But still art.
Edge: Tie again—Blinding Lights won the mainstream moment, Save Your Tears went for narrative depth.
Lyrics & Emotional Weight
Blinding Lights is desperate, breathless, and high-octane. It’s the sonic version of texting your ex at 3 a.m. because your Uber driver played that one song that reminded you of her.
Save Your Tears is about emotional distance and guilt—the realization that you hurt someone, and maybe they don’t want your apology anymore. It’s softer, more introspective, and arguably the more mature sibling.
Both songs reflect different sides of The Weeknd’s artistry: one chases the high (Blinding Lights), the other confronts the fallout (Save Your Tears).
Edge: Depends on your heartbreak flavor—but Save Your Tears might hit deeper for the emotionally fluent.
Fan Reception & Legacy
- On Reddit and Twitter, Blinding Lights is often grouped into The Weeknd’s trinity with In Your Eyes and Save Your Tears—a trio fans call one of the strongest three-track runs in modern pop history.
- Many fans see Blinding Lights as euphoric, timeless, and endlessly replayable—something even non-fans vibe with. It’s already wedding dancefloor canon.
- Save Your Tears is more of a slow-burn favorite. It’s the one fans return to when they want to feel something, and not just dance in neon ecstasy.
- New fans constantly ask for songs like both, suggesting their influence hasn’t waned—these aren’t just hits, they’re gateway drugs to The Weeknd’s discography.
Edge: Blinding Lights—but Save Your Tears is a beloved underdog in the fanbase that ages like fine synth-wine.
Final Verdict
Let’s face it—this wasn’t just a battle. It was a clash of titans. But after crunching the numbers, soaking in the synth, and dancing through the existential crisis…
Winner: Blinding Lights
Why? Because it’s everywhere. It’s in commercials, TikToks, playlists, memes, Super Bowl performances, and your uncle’s “cool” party mix. It didn’t just define an album—it defined a moment in pop music history.
But…
If you’re Team Save Your Tears, don’t worry—you’ve still got taste. Deep, emotional, introspective taste. The kind of taste that appreciates poetic heartbreak under a disco ball
Key Points
- Blinding Lights spent a record-breaking 90 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest-charting song in the chart’s history as of late 2024 and still unmatched in 2025.
- Save Your Tears started as a slow burn but exploded globally after the Ariana Grande remix, propelling the track to the top of charts and streaming playlists worldwide.
- Both tracks embraced retro synth-pop sounds, blending 80s nostalgia with modern production to craft a signature sonic identity for After Hours.
- Blinding Lights once surpassed Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You in Spotify streams, becoming one of the most-streamed songs ever—though it’s no longer #1 as of 2025.
- The Save Your Tears music video stood out for its use of prosthetic makeup and surreal visuals, offering one of The Weeknd’s most haunting performances.
- Blinding Lights became a cultural juggernaut, dominating TikTok, Super Bowl ads, and global media to cement its place in pop history.
- Despite massive success, Blinding Lights was completely snubbed by the Grammys, sparking controversy and fueling industry-wide criticism.
- Save Your Tears, however, went on to win major awards, with fans viewing its success as a symbolic win after The Weeknd’s Grammy boycott.
- The two songs showcased The Weeknd’s emotional and musical range, with Blinding Lights delivering euphoric urgency and Save Your Tears conveying melancholic groove.
- Together, they defined the After Hours era, a thematically rich project that fused cinematic storytelling with emotional chaos and pop brilliance.
Fun Facts
- Blinding Lights became one of the most used songs in TikTok history, with tens of millions of video uses as of 2025, helping it go viral across generations.
- Its intro is widely compared to A-ha’s “Take On Me”, highlighting The Weeknd’s clear nod to 80s pop aesthetics.
- The Blinding Lights video features neon-drenched visuals inspired by Scorsese’s Casino and classic Las Vegas imagery, despite being filmed in Los Angeles.
- The Save Your Tears music video is interpreted by many as a symbolic jab at the Grammys, aligning with The Weeknd’s public rejection of the awards.
- The exaggerated facial changes in Save Your Tears weren’t digital—they were prosthetics, expertly crafted by an SFX team to represent fame and distortion.
- The Ariana Grande remix of Save Your Tears topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving the song renewed life and cross-audience appeal.
- Blinding Lights is still the longest-running song in Hot 100 history, charting for 90 weeks and standing tall through 2025.
- Max Martin co-wrote Save Your Tears, adding his legendary pop-writing expertise to its sleek, catchy structure.
- The Weeknd described Blinding Lights as a song about late-night desperation and longing, turning nightlife into emotional narrative.
- Though upbeat and danceable, Blinding Lights is written in a minor key, giving it a subtle emotional tension beneath the gloss.
- New harmonies and vocals from Ariana in the remix gave Save Your Tears a duet-style transformation, not just a standard feature.
- Both songs have been used in mental health-themed TikToks, with fans expressing how the upbeat sounds helped them through tough times.
- The Weeknd reportedly spent $7 million of his own money on the 2021 Super Bowl Halftime Show, including a cinematic performance of Blinding Lights.
- Save Your Tears is widely rumored to be inspired by Bella Hadid, though The Weeknd has never confirmed this—adding to the intrigue.
- Blinding Lights helped The Weeknd break Spotify’s monthly listener record at the time, surpassing 100 million listeners—a historic achievement, even though newer peaks have since emerged.