The Weeknd was born Abel Tesfaye in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he was raised mostly by his grandmother as his single mother worked to support them. From his Ethiopian grandmother, he learned his first language: Amharic.
According to producer Jeremy Rose, The Weeknd started as a project between himself and Tesfaye, but they parted ways just before Tesfaye's popularity exploded. He explained to Vice: "He was pushing for some things I didn't want to do, and it got to the point where he wouldn't respect my opinion. He wanted me to produce for him without any of my input."
Where did that missing "e" go at the end of his stage name? He told MTV he had to drop it to avoid copyright issues with a Canadian band called The Weekend.
One of his first fans was fellow Canadian artist Drake, who shared some of the tracks an unknown Weeknd posted to YouTube in December 2010. Drake would become a frequent collaborator and was the only guest performer on The Weeknd's debut album, Kiss Land.
Before his debut album, he earned critical acclaim (and comparisons to Michael Jackson) from three mixtapes: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.
In 2012 he had a feud with R&B singer The-Dream, who publicly accused The Weeknd of copying his style.
The Weeknd had barely left his hometown until he hit the age of 21. "I'd never left Toronto," he told Complex in 2012. "I'd driven to Montreal, but I'd never been on a plane before two or three years ago."
Michael Jackson's "
Dirty Diana" made The Weeknd want to be a songwriter. "I got emotional," he told
Billboard magazine looking back at the first time he read its lyrics. "It's when I first knew I wanted to write songs."
The Weeknd covered the song as "D.D." on his 2011 mixtape
Echoes of Silence.
The Weeknd used to record Boyz II Men cover songs. "I got a microphone and a sh---y computer and started recording these corny songs with my friends, Boyz II Men covers and s--t," he recalled to
Pitchfork. "I would listen to it and I thought I sounded OK, but I was still shy."
The Weeknd's wild hair made him instantly recognizable when he came on the scene. Speaking to Vogue, he credited Jean-Michel Basquiat and the L.A. rapper Murs for inspiring the look.
The Weekend cut off his signature spiky dreadlocks in 2016 prior to the release of his "
Starboy" single, adopting a more conventional Caesar cut: "It was actually very uncomfortable," he told
The Wall Street Journal of his Basquiat hairstyle. "I could only sleep on one side of my face. Now the sleep is amazing, the shower is amazing because I don't have to spend two hours cleaning it. I didn't know how much I wanted it until I did it."
Abel Tesfaye anonymously uploaded his first three tracks to YouTube on February 24, 2011 under the cryptic username "xoxxxoooxo." No identifying name was associated with the account, other than the peculiarly misspelled band moniker "The Weeknd."
The Weeknd became the first Canadian to perform solo at the Super Bowl halftime show when he headlined on February 7, 2021. During
his set, he played hit songs from throughout his career.
In 2023, he starred in The Idol, an HBO series about a troubled pop star. He doesn't play the pop star though - his character is a nightclub owner who becomes her lover.
The Weeknd's huge streaming numbers made him the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He achieved this milestone on February 27, 2023, becoming a true streaming giant.
In 2021, after his album After Hours didn't receive any nominations, The Weeknd announced that he would no longer submit his music for Grammy consideration, decrying the opaque voting process.
He lifted his boycott in 2025 after the organization took heed and added many new voters who were younger and/or people of color. That year, he made a surprise appearance to perform two songs from his recently released album Hurry Up Tomorrow: "Cry for Me" and "Timeless."
