biography OF The Weeknd

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

 (Amharic: አቤል መኮንን ተስፋዬ; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding pop, electronic and hip-hop stylings in contemporary R&B music, which became known as alternative R&B. 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.

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 alternative R&B sound, 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 began combining his signature alternative R&B sound with a more pop-oriented approach on his second and third studio albums, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) and Starboy (2016), both of which debuted atop the US Billboard 200, spawning the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Can't Feel My Face", "The Hills", "Starboy", and "Die for You".

He returned to a more alternative R&B-dominated soundscape 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 chart-topping singles "Heartless" and "Save Your Tears", as well as "Blinding Lights", which became the best-performing song in the Billboard Hot 100's history and the longest-charting song at the time. 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 drew significant controversy and was received as a critical failure. His sixth album, Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025), yielded the US top-five single "Timeless" and a critically-panned companion film of the same name.

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. He has also set the record for most songs to have over 1 billion streams on Spotify (27), with "Blinding Lights" being the most-streamed song in the platform's history. Tesfaye was listed by Time as one of the world's most influential people in 2020. He has donated to various causes and as an advocate for racial equality and food security, he was appointed a World Food Programme goodwill ambassador in 2021.

Abel Tesfaye was born on February 16, 1990, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  The only child of Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu,  who separated shortly after his birth, he was raised in the suburb of Scarborough by his mother and grandmother. Tesfaye's patronymic is spelled "Makkonen" instead of the traditional Ethiopian name "Makonnen". The similarity with the Finnish surname Makkonen is pure coincidence. The spelling of Tesfaye's patronymic might be the result of a typographic error or a new form of the traditional name.  Tesfaye is proficient in Amharic, his native language acquired from his grandmother, and is also fluent in French, as he attended a French immersion school. He was further educated at West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute. 

At seventeen, Tesfaye dropped out of school and relocated to an apartment in the neighbourhood of Parkdale with two friends, one of whom is La Mar Taylor—his best friend and now creative director.  Living a hedonistic lifestyle with his friends, Tesfaye adopted his stage name because he left home on a weekend.  He removed the last 'e' in 'weekend' to avoid trademark issues with the Canadian pop rock band the Weekend. He has also experienced homelessness and was incarcerated on several occasions during this time, which encouraged him to "smarten up, to focus"  During this time, Tesfaye frequently engaged in drug use, including substances such as ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, magic mushrooms, and cough syrup, stating that drugs were a "crutch" for him when he wrote music  Before releasing music under his current stage name, he went under the alias "Kin Kane", as part of a hip-hop duo called "Bulleez n Nerdz", and was part of a production team called 'the Noise'

MINI BIO :

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, professionally known as The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer born February 16, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario, to Ethiopian parents. He is known for his mixtapes "House of Balloons," "Thursday," and "Echoes of Silence," and the albums "Kiss Land" (2013), "Beauty Behind the Madness" (2015) which included the mega-hit 'The Hills;' "Starboy" (2016), "My Dear Melancholy" (2018), "After Hours" (2020), "Dawn FM" (2022), "The Idol" (2023), and "Hurry Up Tomorrow" (2025), the latter two of which also represent his acting roles, in The Idol (2023) and Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025), respectively.

Tesfaye 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.  He prefers to be interviewed only in rare situations.  Tesfaye was raised as an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian.  When asked whether or not he was still religious, he stated to Variety in 2020, "I dunno...everything is a test, and if you are religious or spiritual, you have to go through things." 

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 20  Both of the relationships received widespread media attention, and were the topic of tabloid speculation.  Tesfaye has been in a relationship with Saudi-born disc jockey Simi Khadra since February 2022 Publications noticed that unlike his previous romances with Hadid and Gomez, Tesfaye keeps his relationship with Khadra private from the press. 

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. According to The Guardian's Hermione Hoby, this was his intention, though others believe it was a reference to his recreational use of ecstasy and oxycodone. He later altered the handles on his social media to reflect his stage name in preparation for the release of Starboy  In August 2021, during a cover story with GQ, he described himself as being "sober lite", meaning that he has stopped using drugs with the exception of marijuana. He also noted that he drinks alcohol occasionally, stating: "I'm not a heavy drinker, as much as I used to be. The romance of drinking isn't there." 

In January 2015, Tesfaye was arrested for allegedly punching a police officer in Las Vegas after being taken into an elevator to break up a fight. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to complete fifty hours of community service.

Studio albums

• Kiss Land (2013)
• Beauty Behind the Madness (2015)
• Starboy (2016)
• After Hours (2020)
• Dawn FM (2022)
• Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025)

• 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)
• Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025)
• Rolling Loud (2026)

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 (2022–2025)

Supporting

• Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials Tour (2012)
• Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience World Tour (2013)
• Drake – Would You Like a Tour? (2014)

Current touring musicians

• Ricky Lewis – drums (2011–present)
• Patrick Greenaway – lead guitar (2012–present), keyboards (2022–present), synthesizer (2020–2022)
• Mike Dean – synthesizer, guitar, keyboards, saxophone (2022  2023–present)

Former touring musicians

• Adrian X – lead guitar (2011)
• Nathaniel James – bass, keyboards (2012)
• Daniel Jones – keyboards (2012–2013; died 2023)
• Jonathan "Jonny Goood" Drummond – bass, keyboards (2012–2013)
• Kelly Wolfgramm – backing vocals (2012–2013)
• Muhsinah – backing vocals (2012–2013)
• Ledaris "LJ" Jones – bass, keyboards (2013–2022)

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