WATCH: The Weeknd Performed ‘Blinding Lights’ on the VMAs

And he did it without an audience from the roof of a skyscraper in NYC.

30-year-old Canadian singer (whose real name is Abel Tesfaye) and Cars 108 artist The Weeknd opened up the MTV Video Music Awards with a bang tonight. Literally.

Parts of the performance were pre-taped in Brooklyn, with The Weeknd wearing his bloody-and-battered makeup and outfit that he donned in the original video (see below), which was shot in Los Angeles and Vegas.

The rest of his performance was live, from the observation deck at Hudson Yards with drones and helicopters circling him and fireworks exploding behind him.

Pretty cool, if you ask me.