Artist Profile: The Weeknd

Abel Tesfaye, mostly known by his on-stage name “The Weeknd,”  is a very successful 28-year-old R&B and Hip-Hop artist who was born in Toronto,  Ontario Canada. 

He currently has a few albums and mixtapes. There are three mixtapes that formed Trilogy, which was dropped in 2012. They are House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, each mixtape was released on different dates throughout 2011, forming a very emotional album. Next, there was another album called Kiss Land which was released in 2013 and then came Beauty Behind the Madness which was released in 2015. Then the more upbeat album Starboy was released in 2016, but his more emotional type of music made a return out of nowhere in 2018 when he released the EP album My Dear Melancholy which is a very emotional album. Currently, he is working on “Chapter 6” which is expected to be released in 2019-2020 but isn’t yet confirmed by him. 

The Weeknd’s music can be very emotional but also can be very upbeat which are two very conflicting things, but that’s what it’s like with his music and it’s something you have to be able to understand when listening to it. You have to really pay attention to the lyrics that are put into his songs to understand his true emotions and what he’s really feeling. The very deep and meaningful lyrics put into The Weeknd’s music is art. His albums are representations of what he went through throughout his life and everything he felt. An example would be his album Kiss Land, which was all about his tour life but was a world he had created in his head. He said it was a very different feeling because of all the touring that was new to him. His mixtape House of Balloons represented his life in Toronto and all the life experiences he had there.

Some of his most popular hits from the recent years according to media are, Earned it, The Hills, Starboy, Can’t Feel my Face, In the Night, King of the Fall, Call Out My Name, and more. For his older music, the songs Wicked Games, Twenty-Eight, The Morning, Love in The Sky, What You Need, Montreal and more. 

A few of his accomplishments include having his album, Beauty Behind the Madness get to No.1 in  2015. Also in 2016 he won a Grammy award for best R&B performance for one of his top hits, Earned It, and also one for the best contemporary album. Over the years he has started accumulating even more awards. 

Some fun facts about The Weeknd are: his first time leaving Toronto was when he was 21, a couple of his main influences are the late singers Michael Jackson and Prince. He was also known for having very unique hair but then cut it all off in 2016. He did, in fact, keep his hair in a safe. 

Currently, Abel is working on his next album. On Twitter, he said“Some chapters are smaller than others. Not this next one though”, which could be referring to his upcoming album. His success has been astonishing throughout the years, him being someone mysterious and not known by many to now being known by way more people and having an immense amount of fans now is a high boost. All the progress that he’s made in the past years is already impressive and brought him so much success, to the point he’s getting No.1 albums and songs. Knowing all of this now we know that The Weeknd will be even greater than what he already is.