The Weeknd

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known professionally as the Weeknd. He is known for his influence on contemporary R&B and pop music. Tesfaye's music has been categorized as alternative R&B.
Tesfaye began his career by anonymously uploading several songs to YouTube in 2010. He used the name "The Weeknd" when he uploaded the videos. A year later, he released the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. Many people liked these mixtapes. He signed with Republic Records and created his own record label named XO. The mixtapes were later remastered and released again on the compilation album Trilogy (2012). His first album, Kiss Land, was released in September 2013. In 2015, Tesfaye released Beauty Behind the Madness. It ended up being one of the top-selling albums of 2015. That same year, Tesfaye became the first artist to hold the top three positions on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart at the same time, with "Can't Feel My Face", "Earned It", and "The Hills". His third album was released in 2016. It was called Starboy. It was also very successful. The song of the same name reached the number-one spot on music charts in many countries. He released his first extended play (EP), My Dear Melancholy, in 2018. It topped the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts in the US. It also topped the Canadian Albums Chart, and charts in the UK, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and South Korea.
The Weeknd has won three Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, two MTV Music Video Awards, and nine Juno Awards. He has been nominated for one Academy Award. In an interview in 2013, Tesfaye said his singing was inspired by Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, and Prince.
Early life
Abel Tesfaye was born in Toronto, Ontario. He grew up in Scarborough, in the city's east end. He is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, who were Ethiopian immigrants to Canada in the late 1980s.
Tesfaye's father left the family when he was a toddler. Tesfaye was cared for by his grandmother and mother. While living with his grandmother, Tesfaye learned Amharic. He spoke Amharic with his mother. He also went to Ethiopian Orthodox church services.
In an interview about his father, Tesfaye said: "I saw him vaguely when I was six, and then again when I was 11 or 12, and he had a new family and kids. I don't even know where he lived -- I'd see him for, like, a night. I'm sure he's a great guy. I never judged him. He wasn't abusive; he wasn't an alcoholic; he wasn't an asshole. He just wasn't there."Tesfaye describes his teenage years as the movie "Kids without the AIDS". Tesfaye states he began smoking marijuana at age 11. He said he later moved on to harder drugs. Tesfaye claims he shoplifted many times to support his use of ecstasy, oxycodone, xanax, cocaine, psilocybin, and ketamine.
Tesfaye attended West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Toronto. When he was 17, he got kicked out during his junior year while at West Hill and transferred to Birchmount Park. He dropped out in 2007, six months after transferring schools. Tesfaye left his home shortly after that. He moved into a small apartment in the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto with some friends. Tesfaye has credited his stage name as being inspired by his high school dropout status, saying he "left one weekend and never came back home", although producer Jeremy Rose claims the name was his idea. The spelling was changed in order to avoid trademark issues with the Canadian band The Weekend. He also said that his stage name was going to be the title of his mixtape, House of Balloons.
Career
2010-2011: Career beginnings
Tesfaye met Jeremy Rose in 2010, a producer who had an idea for a dark R&B musical project. Rose played one of his instrumentals for Tesfaye, and then Tesfaye freestyle rapped over it. This led to the two collaborating on an album. Rose produced three songs: "What You Need", "Loft Music", and "The Morning", along with others that were ultimately scrapped. Rose let Tesfaye keep the tracks he had produced under the condition that he would be credited for them. In December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded "What You Need", "Loft Music" and "The Morning" to YouTube under his stage name, although his identity was initially unknown. The songs drew some attention online, and were later included in a blog post from Drake. Drake's blog post helped the songs receive coverage from various media outlets, including Pitchfork and The New York Times. Before adopting the stage name "The Weeknd", he worked under the aliases of "The Noise" and "Kin Kane", and was also in a group with JessieRay called "Bulleez n Nerdz."
On March 21, 2011, Tesfaye self-released his debut mixtape House of Balloons. The mixtape included production from Canadian producers Illangelo and Doc McKinney, and included the tracks produced by Rose, although he did not receive production credits like he told Tesfaye to do. When Rose found out about this, he told Tesfaye that he didn't want to work with him anymore. Rose also told VICE that he wasn't paid by Tesfaye. House of Balloons was met with positive reviews. It was named as one of ten shortlisted nominees for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.
Tesfaye began a tour of Toronto in July, with his first ever live performance at the city's Mod Club venue. He performed "High for This", "Wicked Games", and "The After Party". Fellow Toronto rapper Drake was in attendance to view the performance. It ran for a total of ninety minutes, and was sold-out. Drake later approached Tesfaye for a potential musical collaboration between the pair. They had both met in 2009 when Tesfaye and his producers wrote a song called "Birthday Suit" while Drake was putting together his debut album Thank Me Later. Although the song never made it to the album, Drake still kept an eye on Tesfaye. Tesfaye later accompanied Drake at many shows, as well as making an appearance at the second annual OVO Fest. Over the summer of 2011, Tesfaye contributed to five songs on Drake's Take Care as a writer, including an appearance on "Crew Love" as a featured artist.
Tesfaye avoided participating in interviews and chose to communicate through Twitter after the album was released. Tesfaye also chose to communicate through Twitter before releasing his second mixtape Thursday, which was released on August 18, 2011. It was produced by Doc McKinney and IIIangelo, just like House of Balloons was, and features Drake in one song. Tesfaye's third mixtape Echoes of Silence was released on December 21, 2011, a year after his debut singles. It also received positive reviews from Pitchfork, Billboard, and other websites.
After this release, the three mixtapes were known together as the Balloons Trilogy.
2012-2014: Trilogy and Kiss Land
In April 2012, Tesfaye began his first tour of the United States with a performance at the Coachella Festival, where he performed the Balloons Trilogy. The tour reached a high point in New York City with back-to-back sold-out shows, which were positively reviewed by Rolling Stone. Tesfaye expanded his tour to include Europe, and he performed at various European festivals, including the Primavera Sound Festivals in Spain and Portugal, and the Wireless Festival in London, all during Summer 2012. He received positive responses from both Katy Perry and Florence Welch over his performance of "Dirty Diana" in London, who noted his ability to successfully undertake a complex song. In June, the Balloons Trilogy was revealed to have been downloaded over 8 million times, which allowed Tesfaye to initiate formal commercial release of the projects later that year.
In September 2012, Tesfaye signed with Republic Records in a joint venture with his own imprint XO. The compilation album for the mixtapes, named Trilogy, was released two months later, and consisted of several remastered versions of songs as well as three additional ones. "Wicked Games" was remastered as the lead single, and was released in October. The song was also included in the soundtrack for the movie Southpaw. The movie features 50 Cent, and the soundtrack was produced by Eminem. Trilogy also officially credited Rose as a producer and writer on the three songs from House of Balloons that he did not initially receive credit on. It entered the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at the number four spot, and also debuted at number five on the Canadian Albums Chart. Trilogy was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and double-platinum by Music Canada in May 2013. It had sold 385,000 copies almost a year after the release, in September 2013. Tesfaye also gained a nomination for the Sound of 2013 poll award by the BBC a week later.
On May 16, 2013, Tesfaye premiered the title track to his debut studio album Kiss Land, and announced the album's release date as September 10. The album was later promoted by the singles "Belong to the World" and "Live For" featuring Drake, as well as with Tesfaye heading out on The Fall tour a week before the album's release. The Fall Tour ran from September to November. After being released, Kiss Land debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 96,000 copies. It received generally positive reviews from music critics.
In November, Tesfaye appeared on the 20/20 Experience World Tour and partnered with headline act Justin Timberlake for six shows. This was three weeks prior to his contributions to the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), contributing "Devil May Cry", as well as featuring on Sia's "Elastic Heart". "Elastic Heart" was later chosen as the second lead single from the soundtrack.
In February 2014, Tesfaye remixed "Drunk in Love", a single by Beyonce from her studio album. He retaining the theme and concept of the song and detailed the synopsis through the perspective of a male. The remix was well-received. In June, Tesfaye officially announced his first headlining tour, called the King of the Fall tour. The tour was held across the United States in September and October, and saw Schoolboy Q and Jhene Aiko as supporting acts. This announcement came before the release of the single "Often", and led to speculation that it would be the first single from his second album. The speculation proved to be true, and Often was released on July 31, 2014 as the first single of his second album. His second album was released in August 2015. He later collaborated with Ariana Grande on a duet titled "Love Me Harder" in September, which peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. On December 23, he released "Earned It", a single from Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and it was his second contribution to a movie.
2015-2017: Beauty Behind the Madness and Starboy
After winning the Centric Award at the 2015 BET Awards for "Earned It", he performed the song again with Alicia Keys, and also debuted the song "The Hills". "The Hills" was later released for digital download, and debuted at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100. The single later went on to top the chart, which meant that was Tesfaye's first number-one single.
A further three songs were leaked online in the corresponding days. On June 8, "Can't Feel My Face", one of the leaked tracks, was released as a second single, following its performance at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The song debuted at number twenty-four on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached number-one on the Hot 100, making it his third top 10 hit, and his second number-one hit in the United States. He occupied all three slots on Billboard's Hot R&B Songs chart at the same time with "Can't Feel My Face", "Earned It", and "The Hills" for the week of July 15. With this, Tesfaye become the first artist in history to accomplish it. In June, Tesfaye was unveiled as one of the musical faces of the new streaming service Apple Music along with fellow Canadian and frequent collaborator Drake. During the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, Apple debuted a two-part promotional commercial featuring Tesfaye, which had a guest appearance from John Travolta. It was revealed that his second studio album would be titled Beauty Behind the Madness.
Beauty Behind the Madness was released on August 28, 2015, and debuted atop the Billboard 200, earning 412,000 album equivalent units in its first week. It reached the top 10 in over ten countries, as well as reaching number one in Canada, Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The album was promoted by Tesfaye headlining various summer music festivals, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, the Hard Summer Music Festival in Pomona, and the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle. He announced his first large-scale tour across the United States, which began in November, and concluded in December. The album went double platinum in the US, and sold 1.5 million copies worldwide. It was reported to be the most-streamed album throughout 2015, with over 60 million listeners. It was also ranked on multiple lists for best albums of the year.
After engaging in multiple musical collaborations with Belly, Meek Mill, and Travis Scott, Tesfaye was featured on "Low Life", the triple platinum single from Future's album EVOL, in December of that year. In February 2016, Tesfaye was featured on "FML", a track on Kanye West's The Life of Pablo. It was the second collaboration between the pair, and West provided production and writing on "Tell Your Friends" from Beauty Behind the Madness. Tesfaye appeared on "6 Inch", the fifth song on Beyonce's Lemonade, in April. He was announced by Spotify as being among the top five most streamed artists in their first year partnering with Sony to provide the streaming service on the PlayStation 4.
While preparing for his third studio album, Republic Records executive vice-president Wendy Goldstein confirmed Tesfaye began collaborating with French electronic music duo Daft Punk on August 24. On the same day, Tesfaye announced a collaboration with Norwegian DJ Cashmere Cat on his debut single "Wild Love" from his album 9. A month later, the album's title was announced as Starboy, and was set to be released on November 25. He released the album's title track, which features Daft Punk, on September 21. The song received platinum certification and peaked at number one in the United States, as well as in various other countries. It also became Daft Punk's first chart-topping song. A week later, "False Alarm" was released as a promotional single. A second collaboration with Daft Punk, entitled "I Feel It Coming", was released a week after the album's release, alongside the single "Party Monster". "Party Monster" topped the Rhythmic Songs Chart. He released a 12-minute short film titled M A N I A on November 23. It features excerpts from the album, including snippets from "All I Know" featuring Future, "Sidewalks" featuring Kendrick Lamar, "Secrets" and "Die for You".
In 2017, Tesfaye appeared on Future's sixth studio album, as well as on the debut single from Nav, who was signed by XO in January. He became the first person featured by Lana Del Rey when he appeared on "Lust for Life", the title track and second single from her fifth studio album, in April. He was featured on French Montana's "A Lie", the third single from his second album Jungle Rules. In September, he appeared on the official music video for Lil Uzi Vert's "XO Tour Llif3" along Nav. He was later featured on Lil Uzi Vert's debut album and Gucci Mane's eleventh studio album Mr. Davis. He gained a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for Starboy and ended up winning the award.
2018-present: My Dear Melancholy, After Hours, Super Bowl halftime show, and Dawn FM
In January 2018, Tesfaye was featured on one of the tracks in the Kendrick Lamar-produced Black Panther soundtrack album, "Pray for Me". On February 2, it was released as the soundtrack's third single. This marks the second collaboration between Tesfaye and Lamar, after the song "Sidewalks" on the Starboy album.
On March 27, 2018, Tesfaye began promoting a possible new release in an Instagram post. On March 29, a billboard appeared in London, England promoting a possible album titled My Dear Melancholy, and on the same day the project was officially announced. On March 30, the extended play My Dear Melancholy was officially released, with "Call Out My Name" as the lead single.
Tesfaye released his sixth studio album, After Hours, on March 20, 2020. The album became his fourth to reach number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart, selling 444,000 US copies in its first week, the most for any of his albums. It spawned his fourth and fifth US number-one songs, "Heartless" and "Blinding Lights".
Tesfaye also opened the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards by performing "Blinding Lights" at the top of Edge at Hudson Yard in New York City. The video for "Blinding Lights" won Video of the Year and Best R&B.
He was featured on a remix of Colombian singer Maluma's song "Hawai", on Scottish DJ Calvin Harris' track "Over Now", and on American singer Ariana Grande's song "Off the Table" from her album, Positions.
In November 2020, Tesfaye was announced as the headliner for the halftime show of Super Bowl LV, occurring on February 7, 2021. The performance received a mixed response with critics pointing out that the coronavirus restrictions made a grander performance difficult.
On 23 April 2021, Tesfaye released a remix of the number one hit "Save Your Tears" featuring fellow star Ariana Grande. The song quickly rose to number one on the US Billboard 100.
On 6 August 2021, Tesfaye released his recent single "Take My Breath" and announced an untitled fifth album to be released.
On January 7 2022, Tesfaye released his fifth and most recent studio album "Dawn FM".
Upon release, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 148,000 units, making it Tesfaye's eighth top ten entry. In addition to "Take My Breath", Dawn FM was supported by the singles "Sacrifice" and "Out of Time".
On March 20, the Weeknd played in an episode of the cartoon The Simpsons.
A music video was released on April 5, for the song "Out of Time". The music video stars HoYeon Jung and Jim Carrey.
On July 4 2022, The Weeknd began his "After Hours till Dawn Tour" across North America, Europe, and Latin America. The tour primarily visits stadiums. The tour is set to conclude in October 2023.
On December 14, The Weeknd announced he contributed an original song for the movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, called "Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)".
On February 27, 2023, The Weeknd became the first artist to surpass 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
On March 3, 2023, The Weeknd released his first live album, titled Live at SoFi Stadium.
The live album was a collection of recordings from his HBO Max concert film, which was also titled Live at SoFi Stadium.
Music
Studio albums
Kiss Land (2013)
Beauty Behind the Madness (2015)
Starboy (2016)
After Hours (2020)
Dawn FM (2022)
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
The Weeknd has won 3 awards from 10 nominations.
|-
|2014
| "Remember You" (with Wiz Khalifa)
| Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
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|-
|rowspan="7"| 2016
|rowspan="2"| Beauty Behind the Madness
| Album of the Year
|
|-
| Best Urban Contemporary Album
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| "Can't Feel My Face"
| Record of the Year
|
|-
| Best Pop Solo Performance
|
|-
|rowspan="3"| "Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)"
| Best R&B Performance
|
|-
| Best R&B Song
|
|-
| Best Song Written for Visual Media
|
|-
| 2017
| Lemonade (as featured artist)
| Album of the Year
|
|-
| 2018
| Starboy
| Best Urban Contemporary Album
|
|}
American Music Awards
|-
|rowspan="4"|2015
|"Can't Feel My Face"
|Single of the Year
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|-
|Beauty Behind the Madness
|Favorite Soul/R&B Album
|
|-
|rowspan="5"|Himself
|New Artist of the Year
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|-
|rowspan="2"|Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist
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|-
|rowspan="2"|2016
|
|-
|Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist
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|-
|rowspan="5"|2017
|Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|Starboy
|Favorite Pop/Rock Album
|
|-
|Favorite Soul/R&B Album
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|"Starboy" (featuring Daft Punk)
|Favorite Soul/R&B Song
|
|-
|Collaboration of the Year
|
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|2018
|rowspan="4"|Himself
|rowspan="2"|Favorite Male Artist - Soul/R&B
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|-
|rowspan="8"|2020
|
|-
|Favorite Male Artist - Pop/Rock
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|-
|Artist of the Year
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|"Heartless"
|Favorite Song - Soul/R&B
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|"Blinding Lights"
|Favorite Music Video
|
|-
|Favorite Song - Pop/Rock
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|-
|rowspan="2"|After Hours
|Favorite Album - Soul/R&B
|
|-
|Favorite Album - Pop/Rock
|
|}
Personal life
Tesfaye began dating model Bella Hadid at the beginning of 2015. They were first seen together in April at Coachella. Hadid later starred in his music video "In the Night" in December. They also made a red carpet appearance as a couple at the 2016 Grammy Awards. In November 2016, it was reported that the couple had split. Their reasoning for the split was their conflicting schedules. Tesfaye reportedly started dating Selena Gomez in January 2017 and they moved in together temporarily in September 2017 in Greenwich Village, New York. They broke up in October 2017. By May 2018, Tesfaye and Hadid began dating again, and split in August 2019. The two have had an on and off relationship.
Tesfaye often used drugs to help get over writer's block on earlier albums and also abused illegal substances such as, Ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, mushrooms and cough syrup. On social media he typically suffixed his first name with "xo". According to writer Hermione Hoby, it is meant as an emoticon for "a kiss and a hug", but VH1's Zara Golden's stated that it is a reference to his recreational use of ecstasy and oxycodone. Tesfaye later confirmed Zara Golden's statement regarding his social media name.
Legal issues
In January 2015, Tesfaye was arrested for punching a Las Vegas police officer at The Cromwell Hotel. Tesfaye pleaded no contest, and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service in October of that year. Along with community service, he was also ordered to pay $1,000 to an injured police fund, complete anger management classes, and present an alcohol evaluation.
In December 2015, Tesfaye, his producers, and his record label Republic Records, were sued by Cutting Edge Music. They made an allegation that the bass line for "The Hills" had been taken from the score of The Machine. Documents state that Tesfaye's producer allegedly sent the movie director a direct message on Twitter in March saying that he sampled the beat and that it might be on "The Hills".
In September 2018, Tesfaye and Daft Punk were sued for allegedly stealing the rhythm in "Starboy" from a poet, singer and songwriter named Yasminah. Yasminah sued for at least $5 million. Tesfaye denied the allegations.
In November 2018, Tesfaye was sued for copyright infringement by another comic book writer named Eymun Talasazan for stealing the "Starboy" idea. Talasazan claimed he had already created a comic book character named "Starboy" before Tesfaye. A few months earlier, Talasazan attempted to trademark the "Starboy" name unsuccessfully.
In April 2019, Tesfaye was sued by a British trio for $150,000. They accused Tesfaye of plagiarizing their song "I Need to Love" with "A Lonely Night".
Philanthropy
After being presented a Professional Excellence Award by the Bikila organization in 2014, Tesfaye was asked by the organization if he would like to contribute. In August 2016, he donated $50,000 towards a class at the University of Toronto on Ge'ez, the classic language of Ethiopia. He also tweeted to help raise funds and gain support for the program. That same month, Tesfaye also donated $250,000 to Black Lives Matter, and posted a tweet showing his support for the movement.
In December 2015, he worked with Ryan Seacrest's foundation to visit Children's Hospital in Atlanta. Tesfaye made a donation of $50,000 to the St. Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Toronto in May 2016. He went to this church as a child.
In June 2017, Tesfaye donated $100,000 to the Suubi Health Center, a maternity and children's medical facility in rural Uganda. His donation allowed the center to complete the construction of the first floor and increase the serving capacity. Tesfaye was inspired to support the center after learning of his friend French Montana's work with Global Citizen and Mama Hope to help raise awareness for Suubi and the people of Uganda.
References
1990 births
Living people
21st-century Canadian singers
Actors from Toronto
Brit Award winners
Canadian filmmakers
Canadian actors
Canadian hip hop singers
Canadian singer-songwriters
Canadian philanthropists
Canadian pop singers
Canadian voice actors
Ethiopian people
Grammy Award winners
Humanitarians
Musicians from Toronto
New wave musicians
R&B singers
Record producers
Tenors