The Weeknd’s journey: hits, global success, and what’s next

The artist at present often called The Weeknd has spent the final 15 years constructing his repute because the “darkish prince of pop.” Beginning as an enigmatic artist who launched his songs anonymously, The Weeknd has turn into a world celebrity and family identify. However now — after a number of chart-topping albums, an HBO collection, and an ongoing world tour — he’s within the course of of constructing a serious profession shift, even dropping The Weeknd stage identify in favor of his actual identify, Abel Tesfaye.

It’s simply the following step in Tesfaye’s evolution as an artist. To know his influence on trendy music, let’s check out The Weeknd’s humble mixtape beginnings, his meteoric rise to fame, and what’s subsequent for the person behind the moniker.

The Weeknd’s musical evolution: from mixtapes to superstardom

Early darkish R&B mixtapes

After spending most of his teenage years partying and moving into hassle with the legislation, Tesfaye started releasing music anonymously in 2009. His first effort was a set of leaked demos merely titled “The Noise.” Tracks like “Love Via Her” and “Materials Lady” attracted curiosity from listeners on-line, establishing the darkish R&B sound and hedonistic subjects The Weeknd would turn into identified for.

Transition into mainstream pop

In 2011, Tesfaye capitalized on the excitement generated by his first releases by placing out a flurry of further mixtapes — “Home of Balloons,” “Thursday,” and “Echo of Silence” — which he would later repackage into the platinum compilation album “Trilogy.”

Nevertheless it was his contribution to the soundtrack for the raunchy 2015 movie “Fifty Shades of Gray” that might actually propel The Weeknd’s music from bedrooms and basements to nationwide pop radio. Combining Tesfaye’s horny supply with a slick pop strategy, “Earned It” not solely reached quantity three on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart, however earned The Weeknd an Academy Award nomination for Greatest Authentic Track and his first Grammy Award for Greatest R&B Efficiency.

The Weeknd’s albums and eras

‘Kiss Land’ and ‘Magnificence Behind the Insanity’

By the point Tesfaye launched his official debut album, “Kiss Land,” in 2013, he was already a longtime R&B trailblazer. The Canadian artist ready for the album by touring to Tokyo and beginning to dabble in additional experimental and cinematic types that might turn into central to Tesfaye’s later work.

Whereas his 2015 sophomore album, “Magnificence Behind the Insanity,” nodded to his darkish R&B roots on tracks like “Shameless,” it additionally leaned extra closely into pop with hits like “Can’t Really feel My Face.”

‘Starboy,’ ‘My Pricey Melancholy,’ and ‘After Hours’

The seeds he planted on “Kiss Land” and “Magnificence Behind the Insanity” would burst into bloom on The Weeknd’s subsequent challenge, 2016’s “Starboy.” With assist from digital duo Daft Punk, Tesfaye efficiently blended his experimental leanings and contemporary manufacturing into a number of main pop hits, together with “I Really feel it Coming” and the title monitor.

Later, followers of The Weeknd’s older work had been handled to a short return to kind on the 2018 EP “My Pricey Melancholy,” which explored his breakups with singer Selena Gomez and mannequin Bella Hadid. However the EP wasn’t an indication that The Weeknd was abandoning his new path. Two 12 months later, he launched the ’80s-inspired “After Hours,” which kicked off his second trilogy.

‘Daybreak FM’ and ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’

With 2022’s “Daybreak FM,” Tesfaye selected a nostalgic radio present as a framing gadget to ship moody meditations on fame, life, and demise. The album was a important and industrial success, setting a brand new Billboard International 200 chart document and pushing The Weeknd to #1 for prime Spotify listeners.

His newest challenge, “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” capped off the trilogy with an excellent darker therapy of those themes, whereas additionally hinting on the artist’s subsequent evolution. Whereas melancholy as at all times, Tesfaye sings about feeling prepared to alter his methods, most notably on the title monitor.

Innovation and technique: The Weeknd’s imaginative and prescient throughout music and movie

The Weeknd joins ‘The Idol’

By 2023, Tesfaye had confirmed his endurance as a pop star and began in search of new creative endeavors. The HBO collection “The Idol” — which he co-created with “Euphoria” director Sam Levinson — provided him loads of new challenges, together with delays, rewrites, and rushed reshoots. Regardless of these setbacks, Tesfaye stored pushing ahead till the collection lastly premiered in 2023.

Vital and fan reception

Co-starring alongside Lily Rose-Depp and sharing writing credit with Levinson, The Weeknd was largely chargeable for what ended up being an enormous important and industrial failure. The charged sexual nature of the present’s narrative didn’t resonate with audiences who discovered “The Idol” each disturbing to observe and troublesome to comply with. The outcome was Tesfaye’s first actual brush with failure as a mainstream artist.

The Grammy comeback: A shift in perspective

The failure of “The Idol” could have modified Tesfaye’s perspective on extra than simply tv as a automobile for telling tales. When “After Hours” was snubbed by the 2021 Grammy Awards with no nominations — even for the smash hit “Blinding Lights” — the artist criticized the Recording Academy and launched a boycott of the annual ceremonies.

For the following 4 years, Tesfaye refused to submit his music for Grammy consideration. However that boycott would come to a shocking finish in 2025, when he returned to the Grammys stage to carry out a number of songs from his album “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”

Was this a touch at one other shift within the controversial singer’s profession? 

Rebranding as Abel Tesfaye: Why did The Weeknd change his identify?

Tesfaye’s expertise engaged on “The Idol” had another main influence on the artist: Taking part in a personality on the present reminded him of the artificiality of his persona, The Weeknd.

After capturing for the present wrapped, Tesfaye instructed W Journal, “It’s attending to a spot and a time the place I’m on the point of shut the Weeknd chapter.” 

The artist rapidly clarified that he had no intention of retiring from music altogether: “I’ll nonetheless make music, possibly as Abel, possibly as The Weeknd,” he mused. “However I nonetheless wish to kill The Weeknd. And I’ll. Ultimately. I’m positively attempting to shed that pores and skin and be reborn.”

The Weeknd’s excursions and stay performances

After Hours til Daybreak Tour performances and areas

In case you’re hoping to see The Weeknd stay earlier than he retires the moniker for good, you possibly can nonetheless catch him on his record-breaking After Hours til Daybreak Tour, which has been going robust since 2022. The tour — which will probably be making stops all through the USA and Canada this summer time, together with cities equivalent to Detroit, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and Vancouver — will full in September.

What to anticipate

The tour’s present takes followers by a guided journey of The Weeknd’s eras, pulled off with the artist’s signature aptitude for moody spectacles. Based on live performance reviewers, Tesfaye places on a stunning present, full with back-up dancers, pyrotechnics, and rousing renditions of hits like “Sacrifice,” “Can’t Really feel My Face,” and “Usually.”

Cultural influence and legacy: redefining R&B and pop

Redefining trendy R&B and pop

The Weeknd’s music has at all times been a refreshing distinction to an business dominated by squeaky-clean pop stars and traditional R&B heartthrobs. With polarizing material and daring aesthetic selections, Tesfaye by no means shies from creating music that provokes.

Affect on rising artists

The Weeknd’s unfiltered lyrics and experimental soundscapes have impressed many more recent artists to pursue authenticity and innovation of their music. Youthful artists like 6lack and Partynextdoor take apparent cues from Tesfaye’s music, and even friends like Drake, Usher, and Miguel have included a few of The Weeknd’s sounds into their very own music.

Increasing into movie and enterprise

Regardless of his misstep with “The Idol,” Tesfaye has continued to make his mark in TV and movie. He made his movie performing debut in 2019’s “Uncut Gems,” voiced the lead character within the upcoming animated film “Ari the Bat,” and is engaged on a brand new movie with director Trey Edward Shults.

Exterior of movie and TV, Tesfaye has additionally lent his inventive eye to collaborations with clothes corporations Puma, H&M, and A Bathing Ape.

A brand new chapter in music and identification

Is that this a real rebirth for Abel Tesfaye or only a transient shift on his inventive path? It doesn’t matter what he calls himself, nothing can erase the outsized influence he’s had on R&B and pop music. He’s influenced a spread of artists — even a few of the business’s greatest pop stars — to dabble in new genres and inform their most intimate tales by music. No matter what comes subsequent, Tesfaye has already cemented his legacy — in music and past.

Nonetheless curious concerning the Canadian celebrity? Try our archives for extra protection of The Weeknd.