The Real Meaning Behind The Weeknd's 'Lost In The Fire'

The Weeknd is a pretty private guy. He doesn't do a ton of interviews, his social media has far more promotional photos than personal posts, and he seemingly prefers to let his music do the talking. In 2019, The Weeknd and Gesaffelstein teamed up to release "Lost in the Fire" on the heels of the singer's reunion with Bella Hadid following his romance with Selena Gomez. Adding to the messiness was the rumored romance between Hadid and The Weeknd's frenemy Drake. The rapper threw her 21st birthday party in 2017, as reported by Us Weekly. He also seemingly referenced Bella and her sister Gigi Hadid in his 2018 song "Finesse" when he mentioned "fashion week" being someone's "thing" and described a person and her sister as "too hot to handle," per Elle.

That's a lot of backstory going into The Weeknd's song, and that's really not even the half of it. In "Lost In The Fire," the Canadian sings, "And we lost a lot of things in the fire/So it took a year for me to find out (Find out, find out)," per Genius. The "fire" appears to refer to their breakup and that "year" he mentioned lines up with the length of their split prior to that reconciliation. He also sings "I can't lose you, babe" 35 times throughout the song, which, again, sure seems to be about Bella. But the track isn't just a song about requited love — The Weeknd also took some shots at Drake.

In the opening verse of "Lost in the Fire," The Weeknd sings, "You're the only one I've got my sights on / Type of sex you could never put a price on," which was seemingly about his on-again-off-again love interest Bella Hadid (via Genius). Then he declares, "I'll take it off, you're the one I'll roll the dice on / And I just want a baby with the right one," which Genius contributors believe is his way of saying that he's willing to have unprotected sex with his girlfriend.

But then, things get turned up a notch, when he sings, "I just want a baby with the right/'Cause I could never be the one to hide one/I could never be the one to hide." Months prior, Pusha-T dropped "The Story of Adidon," a diss track where he outed Drake for secretly having a baby with an adult film star Sophie Brussaux. 

"Lost in the Fire" is one of those rarities that manages to be both a love song for one person and a diss track toward another, along with some sexual references thrown in for good measure. If there's anyone who can make that work, it's The Weeknd.