Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (Amharic: አቤል መኮንን ተስፋዬ; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actor. He is known for his unconventional musical production, artistic reinventions and use of the falsetto register.
Tesfaye began releasing music anonymously in 2009. After co-founding the record label XO, he released three mixtapes—House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence—in 2011, and gained recognition for his blend of contemporary and alternative R&B, as well as the mystery surrounding his identity. He signed with Republic Records to reissue the mixtapes into the compilation album Trilogy (2012), and release his debut studio album, Kiss Land (2013) the following year. After a string of collaborations and film soundtrack contributions from 2013 and 2014, Tesfaye transitioned from alternative R&B to a pop sound with his second and third studio albums, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) and Starboy (2016), both of which debuted atop the US Billboard 200. The former yielded his first two US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills", while Starboy spawned two more: its title track (featuring Daft Punk), and after a 2023 remix with Ariana Grande, "Die for You".
He returned to alternative R&B for his debut extended play, My Dear Melancholy (2018), which included the US top-ten single "Call Out My Name". He explored the dream-pop and new wave genres with his fourth studio album, After Hours (2020), which spawned the record-setting single, "Blinding Lights", and two other US number-one singles: "Heartless" and "Save Your Tears". Tesfaye began exploring dance-pop, leading to 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 HBO drama series The Idol, which was a critical failure, though its accompanying soundtrack saw commercial success.
Tesfaye has sold over 75 million records, making him one of the world's best-selling artists. He has earned seven diamond-certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for his singles, and is 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, the best-performing song in the Billboard Hot 100's history and the longest-charting song by a solo artist in the chart's history. 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. His accolades include four Grammy Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 22 Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, a Latin Grammy Award and nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Source : Wikipedia
