COULD Canadian pop megastar The Weeknd be headed to Newcastle?
The Starboy and Blinding Lights hit-maker has announced an Australian leg of his After Hours Til Dawn Global Stadium Tour with dates at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium (November 20), Sydney's Accor Stadium (November 24) and Melbourne's Marvel Stadium (December 1).
Veteran hip-hop producer Mike Dean and rising Ethiopian-Canadian pop songstress Chxrry22 will join The Weeknd as special guests on the tour.
The open schedule leaves ample time for extra shows to be announced in the east coast capital cities, or potentially a concert at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The Turton Road venue has approval for one more major event in 2023, with Elton John's two concerts in January, Paul McCartney's Got Back gig on October 24 and Supercross on November 11 already scheduled.
The Weeknd, aka musician, producer and actor Abel Tesfaye, is the most streamed artist on the planet on music streaming service Spotify with 112 million monthly listeners.
His last four albums Beauty Behind The Madness (2015), Starboy (2016), After Hours (2020) and Dawn FM (2022) have all topped the ARIA charts.
The Weeknd's recent run of European stadium shows included a sold-out crowd of 87,000 at London's Wembley Stadium and consecutive shows in Milan in front of 159,000 people.
The Weeknd's last Australia tour in 2017 was confined to capital cities.
Tesfaye recently starred in and produced controversial drama series The Idol, where he played sleazy self-help guru and cult leader Tedros.
Pre-sale tickets for the Sydney show begin on Friday at 12pm.
General public tickets go on sale on Friday September 1 from 12pm.
