The Weeknd facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Weeknd
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The Weeknd at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival
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Abel Makkonen Tesfaye
February 16, 1990 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (Amharic: አበል መኮነን ተስፋዬ; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is noted for his unconventional music production, artistic reinventions, and his signature use of the falsetto register. His accolades include 4 Grammy Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 22 Juno Awards, 6 American Music Awards, 2 MTV Video Music Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, and nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
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. 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. 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". 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, Tesfaye holds several streaming and Billboard chart records. 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. "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. 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. An advocate for racial equality and food security, he was appointed a World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador in 2021.
Contents
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. So, Tesfaye was cared for by his grandmother and mother. While living with his grandmother Tesfaye learned Amharic, which he also spoke with his mother, and attended Ethiopian Orthodox church services.
In an interview regarding 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.<...> He just wasn't there."
Tesfaye attended West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Toronto. At age 17 he got kicked out halfway into his junior year while at West Hill and transferred to Birchmount Park. He dropped out in 2007, six months after transferring schools. Tesfaye also left his home shortly after that and moved into a small apartment in the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto, along 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 modified 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 Beyoncé 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 Jhené 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 Beyoncé'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.
2018–2020: My Dear Melancholy, and After Hours
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On February 2, 2018, Tesfaye contributed to the soundtrack for Black Panther on the song "Pray for Me" with Kendrick Lamar. The track served as the third single from the soundtrack, and peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.
On March 30, 2018, Tesfaye released his debut extended play My Dear Melancholy, after news of the project were teased and leaked. The EP debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 169,000 units, making it Tesfaye's third consecutive number-one album and the shortest album, by track count, to top the chart in eight years. On April 6, Tesfaye released the EP's lead single "Call Out My Name", which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. On April 13, he headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the first time.
On June 6, 2018, Tesfaye announced his new Apple Music 1 radio show Memento Mori. The first episode was released two days later. On November 21, he released his first greatest hits album The Weeknd in Japan. In support of the album and his EP My Dear Melancholy, he began his sixth concert tour, the Weeknd Asia Tour. The tour began on November 30, 2018, and concluded on December 18, 2018. Tesfaye did six shows in Asia. On January 11, 2019, Tesfaye was featured on Gesaffelstein's song "Lost in the Fire", the second single from his second studio album Hyperion. On April 18, he released "Power Is Power" with SZA and Travis Scott, the lead single from the Game of Thrones-inspired soundtrack.
On November 24, 2019, Tesfaye teased his single "Blinding Lights" through a Mercedes-Benz commercial. On November 27, he released "Heartless" as the lead single from his fourth studio album. The song debuted at number thirty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number one, making it Tesfaye's fourth number-one single. "Blinding Lights" was released two days after the release of "Heartless" on November 29. The single debuted at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number one, making it Tesfaye's fifth number-one single. "Blinding Lights" would then go on to become the first song in the chart's history to hold a spot in the top ten for an entire year. It also became the longest charting song on the Hot 100 of all-time at 90 weeks, ending the week of September 11, 2021. On November 23, 2021, "Blinding Lights" was ranked as the #1 Greatest Hot 100 Hit of All Time by Billboard, surpassing "The Twist" by Chubby Checker. On January 1, 2023 it became the most streamed song on Spotify with 3.3 billion streams.
On February 19, 2020, Tesfaye revealed that his fourth studio album would be titled After Hours, and would be released on March 20. He also released the album's title track as a promotional single. On March 7, he made his third appearance as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, alongside actor Daniel Craig. On the show, he performed "Blinding Lights" and debuted the track "Scared to Live". Tesfaye released the album's third single "In Your Eyes" on March 24. The track peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard Hot 100.
Upon release, After Hours debuted atop the Billboard 200, earning 444,000 units, marking Tesfaye's fourth consecutive number-one album. It became the most streamed R&B album of all-time, surpassing Tesfaye's own Starboy. In the album's first charting week, Tesfaye also became the first artist to lead the Billboard 200, Billboard Hot 100, Billboard Artist 100, Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts simultaneously, and repeated his lead the following week. The deluxe version of After Hours was released on March 29, 2020, and contained the tracks "Nothing Compares", "Missed You" and "Final Lullaby".
On August 7, 2020, Tesfaye was featured on the late Juice Wrld's single "Smile" from his first posthumous album Legends Never Die. On August 28, he was featured on Calvin Harris' single "Over Now". On October 30, Tesfaye appeared on Ariana Grande's song "Off the Table" from her sixth studio album Positions. On the same day, he appeared on Oneohtrix Point Never's track "No Nightmares" from his ninth studio album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, which he also executive produced with OPN. On November 5, he appeared on the remix of Maluma's "Hawái", was nominated for Best Urban Fusion/Performance at the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards. On December 10, he performed at iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball.
2021–present: Dawn FM and The Idol
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On February 5, 2021, Tesfaye released his second greatest hits album The Highlights. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, making it Tesfaye's highest charting compilation album and the biggest first week debut for a greatest hits album since Fully Loaded: God's Country (2019).
Tesfaye headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show on February 7, 2021, becoming the first Canadian solo artist to headline the show. He reportedly spent US$7 million of his own money on the Super Bowl performance. Reviews of the performance were generally positive. The show resulted in a surge in streaming and downloads for Tesfaye's After Hours album as well as for the seven other songs he performed. The halftime show earned three nominations at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Variety Special (Live), Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special, and Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Special.
In March 2021, Tesfaye reissued his debut mixtape House of Balloons in its authentic form with the original mixes and samples to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release. In a collaboration with architect Daniel Arsham, limited edition merchandise was also released alongside the reissue. Six months later, in August, Tesfaye reissued his second 2011 mixtape Thursday to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release. Like House of Balloons, limited edition merchandise was released to accompany the reissue, designed by artist Mr. Yanen. Four months later, in December, Tesfaye reissued his final 2011 mixtape Echoes of Silence to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release. Following the earlier two mixtapes, limited edition merchandise was released alongside the reissue, designed by illustrator Hajime Sorayama. Tesfaye began to tease new music in May 2021. When asked about a new album during an interview with Variety, he explained that "if the last record is the After Hours of the night, then The Dawn is coming". On May 11, Tesfaye performed "Save Your Tears" at the Brit Awards. He also accepted his first Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist, which was presented to him by former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama. On May 24, Tesfaye performed "Save Your Tears" at the Billboard Music Awards. He was nominated for a record sixteen awards, and won ten, including Top Artist and Top Hot 100 Song. When accepting his awards, Tesfaye continued to tease new music by saying "the After Hours are done, and The Dawn is coming". On May 28, he performed the remix of "Save Your Tears" at the iHeartRadio Music Awards with Ariana Grande. On June 25, Tesfaye appeared on Doja Cat's single "You Right" from her third studio album Planet Her. On July 22, he appeared on Belly's single "Better Believe" with Young Thug from his third studio album See You Next Wednesday.
On August 2, 2021, Tesfaye released a snippet of new music on social media. He appeared on the cover of the September 2021 issue of GQ, marking the magazine's first global publication. Then, in a collaboration with NBC Sports and the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tesfaye announced his single "Take My Breath", which was released on August 6. Later that month, he appeared on Kanye West's tenth studio album Donda on the track "Hurricane", which won Best Melodic Rap Performance at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
On October 4, 2021, during an episode of Memento Mori, Tesfaye revealed that his fifth studio album was complete and that he was waiting on a "couple characters that are key to the narrative." On October 18, Tesfaye announced that his upcoming tour, originally titled the After Hours Tour, would be held entirely in stadiums due to arena constraints and was scheduled to commence in July 2022. The tour was renamed as the After Hours til Dawn Tour, and would incorporate elements from his fourth and fifth studio albums.
On October 22, 2021, Tesfaye appeared on Swedish House Mafia's single "Moth to a Flame" from their debut studio album Paradise Again. On November 5, he appeared on Post Malone's single "One Right Now" from his fourth studio album Twelve Carat Toothache. On November 11, he was featured on Rosalía's single "La Fama" from her third studio album Motomami. On December 16, Tesfaye was featured on FKA Twigs' single "Tears in the Club" from her debut mixtape Caprisongs. The next day, on December 17, he was featured on Aaliyah's single "Poison" from her posthumous album Unstoppable.
Tesfaye released his fifth studio album Dawn FM on January 7, 2022. Upon release, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 148,000 units, marking Tesfaye's eighth top ten entry and his second non-consecutive album to debut at number two. He also broke the record for the most simultaneous entries for a male soloist on the Billboard Global 200, with twenty-four songs on the chart. In addition to "Take My Breath", Dawn FM was supported by the singles "Sacrifice" and "Out of Time". February 26, Tesfaye premiered The Dawn FM Experience, a television music special in partnership with Amazon Prime Video.
On March 20, the Weeknd played in an episode of the cartoon The Simpsons. On April 18, he headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the second time, performing alongside Swedish House Mafia. On July 26, 2022, the Weeknd announced that he would host a haunted house at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood, as part of Universal's Halloween Horror Nights hosted every Halloween. His song "Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)," from Avatar: The Way of Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on December 16, 2022.
On February 24, 2023, following months-long renewed interest in and virality of the Weeknd's 2016 song "Die for You," which began charting in 2022 and reached a new peak of 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 6 years after its release, a remix of the song featuring Ariana Grande was released. The remix marked their fourth collaboration. In the Billboard Hot 100 issue dated March 11, 2023, the remix reached the top of the chart, becoming both artists' seventh number one hit. On February 27, 2023, in the wake of the remix's success, 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. It featured recordings from his HBO concert film of the same name, showcasing the last concert of the North American leg of his After Hours til Dawn Tour at SoFi Stadium. He subsequently featured on four songs — "Artificial Intelligence," "Defame Moi," "More Coke!!," and "Emotionless" — from Mike Dean's album 4:23, released on April 29, 2023. In May 2023, the Weeknd stated that he was intending to retire the moniker of "the Weeknd" in favor of performing under his birth name, or adopting a new pseudonym altogether. He explained that his upcoming album would most likely serve as his "final hurrah" under the name.
The Weeknd co-created the HBO drama series The Idol with Sam Levinson, and stars in the show alongside Lily-Rose Depp. The series premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival out of competition. The series debuted to widespread negative reviews from critics. He received negative reviews for his acting, with critic Robert Daniels of The Playlist writing, "Tesfaye is also a terrible actor. He lacks the comfortability, the gravitas, charisma, and charm to increase the viability of Jocelyn being attracted to him. In most scenes, Tesfaye either hides under the cover of dim lighting, obtrusive coverage, or re-recorded dialogue dubbed into several scenes." On August 28, 2023, HBO announced it had cancelled The Idol after one season.
On June 8, 2023, the Weeknd announced an upcoming series of EPs featuring music from The Idol. Originally intended as a soundtrack album, each EP will be released following the premiere of each episode of the show. They will feature collaborations with Future, Playboi Carti, Madonna, and Jennie from the South Korean girl group Blackpink. Later in June he received an invitation from the Academy to become a member.
Tesfaye first teased news of a follow-up album to Dawn FM in 2022, telling his fans: "[I] wonder... did you know you're experiencing a new trilogy?" via Twitter. On January 8, 2024, he further teased an upcoming album, posting pictures of his last two albums and a question mark on his social media. On March 22, 2024, he appeared on the track "Young Metro" from Future and Metro Boomin's collaborative album, We Don't Trust You as well as several tracks on Future and Metro Boomin's We Still Don't Trust You album.
Personal life
Tesfaye is known to be very private, and prefers to keep his personal life out of the public eye. In the beginning of his career, he refrained from participating in interviews and instead chose to communicate via Twitter, which he attributed to shyness and insecurities. To this day, he is still adamant about not participating in interviews, only agreeing to be interviewed in rare situations.
From April 2015 to August 2019, Tesfaye was in an on-again, off-again relationship with American model Bella Hadid. She starred in the music video for his single "In the Night" in December 2015. He dated American singer-actress Selena Gomez from January to October 2017. Both of the relationships received widespread media attention, and were the topic of tabloid speculation. Since February 2022, Tesfaye has been in a relationship with Palestinian model Simi Khadra.
Tesfaye's hairstyle, which has been described as one of his most recognizable traits, has been claimed to be partly inspired by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. He began growing it out in 2011 and remarked at how easy it was to maintain with "a hard shampoo every once in a while". He cut his hair in 2016, prior to the release of Starboy. On social media, Tesfaye typically suffixed his first name with "xo", which is often used as an emoticon for hugs and kisses. He later altered the handles on his social media to reflect his stage name in preparation for the release of Starboy.
As of August 2021, Tesfaye was residing in Bel Air, Los Angeles. In 2017, he purchased a home in Hidden Hills, California for $18.5 million, which he sold to Madonna in 2021 for $19.3 million. Tesfaye previously lived in penthouses in Westwood, Los Angeles and New York City.
In April 2023, Tesfaye revealed in an interview with Interview Magazine that he has attention deficit disorder.
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.
Accolades
Tesfaye has won four Grammy Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, twenty Billboard Music Awards, six American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and twenty-two Juno Awards. He has also received nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
In October 2014, Tesfaye was awarded the Allan Slaight Honour by Canada's Walk of Fame for "making a positive impact in the fields of music, film, literature, visual or performing arts, sports, innovation or philanthropy".
The Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, announced that the city would observe February 7, 2021 as "The Weeknd Day" to commemorate Tesfaye's Super Bowl halftime performance.
Discography
Studio albums
- Kiss Land (2013)
- Beauty Behind the Madness (2015)
- Starboy (2016)
- After Hours (2020)
- Dawn FM (2022)
Filmography
- Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016)
- Uncut Gems (2019)
- The Show (2021)
- Live at SoFi Stadium (2023)
- The Idol (2023)
- Untitled Trey Edward Shults film (TBA)
Tours
Headlining
- The Fall Tour (2012)
- The Kiss Land Fall Tour (2013)
- King of the Fall Tour (2014)
- The Madness Fall Tour (2015)
- Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour (2017)
- The Weeknd Asia Tour (2018)
- After Hours til Dawn Tour (2022–)
Supporting
- Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials Tour (2012)
- Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience World Tour (2013)
- Drake – Would You Like a Tour? (2014)
Touring members
- Patrick Greenaway – lead guitar (2012–present), synthesizer (2020–present)
- Ledaris "LJ" Jones – bass, keyboards (2013–present)
- Ricky Lewis – drums (2011–present)
See also
In Spanish: The Weeknd para niños
