Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (Amharic: አበል መኮነን ተስፋዬ; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Toronto, Tesfaye began his career in 2009 by anonymously releasing music on YouTube. Two years later, he co-founded the XO record label and released the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, which gained recognition for his style of contemporary and alternative R&B and the mystique surrounding his identity.[6] In 2012, he signed with Republic Records and rereleased the mixtapes in the compilation album Trilogy. He explored dark wave in his debut studio album Kiss Land (2013), which debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. After its release, Tesfaye began contributing to film soundtracks, with his acclaimed single “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) winning the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, while also being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Tesfaye earned critical and commercial success with his pop-leaning second album Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), which reached number one in the US, contained the US Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills”, and won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album and was nominated for Album of the Year.[8] His trap-infused third album Starboy (2016) saw similar commercial success and included the US number-one single of the same name and “Die for You”, and won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Tesfaye explored new wave and dream pop with his critically-acclaimed fourth studio album After Hours (2020), which featured the chart record-setting single “Blinding Lights” and the US number-one singles “Heartless” and “Save Your Tears”.[9] Dance-pop inspired his fifth album Dawn FM (2022), which included the US top-ten single “Take My Breath”. In 2023, he co-created and starred in the drama series The Idol, which was critically panned. Among the world’s best-selling music artists with over 75 million records sold,[10] Tesfaye holds several streaming and Billboard chart records.[11][12] He is the first Canadian artist to earn four diamond-certified singles from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as well as the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three spots on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[13][14] “Blinding Lights” became the most-streamed song in Spotify history and the best-performing song in the Billboard Hot 100’s history, as well as the longest charting song by a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100.[15][16] Tesfaye was listed by Time as one of the world’s most influential people in 2020, and was dubbed the “world’s most popular artist” by Guinness World Records in 2023.[17][18] An advocate for racial equality and food security, he was appointed a World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador in 2021. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye[a] was born on February 16, 1990, in Toronto, Ontario.[21] He is the only child of Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu,[b] who separated shortly after his birth.[23][24] He was brought up in the district of Scarborough by his mother and grandmother.[21][25] He has an estranged relationship with his father, telling Rolling Stone in 2015 that “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. In August 2009, Tesfaye began anonymously releasing music on YouTube.[38][39] The following year, he met Jeremy Rose, a producer who had an idea for a dark contemporary R&B project. After initially trying to pitch the idea to musician Curtis Santiago, Rose played one of his instrumentals for Tesfaye, who freestyle rapped over it. Rose produced three songs – “What You Need”, “Loft Music” and “The Party & The After Party” – and others that Tesfaye had sung on, which were ultimately scrapped. Rose let Tesfaye keep the tracks he had produced under the condition that he would be credited for them.[40] In December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded “What You Need”, “Loft Music” and “The Morning” to YouTube under the username “xoxxxoooxo”.[41][42] His identity was initially unknown. The songs drew some attention online, and were later included in a blog post from rapper Drake.[40][43] The songs subsequently received coverage from various media outlets, including Pitchfork and The New York Times.
