The Weeknd

The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye (born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye on February 16, 1990), is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer and actor known for his light-lyric tenor and falsetto, alternative R&B sound and dark aesthetics, as well as the cinematic visuals of his music videos.

The only child of Ethiopian immigrants, he was raised by his mother and grandmother in Scarborough, Toronto. He began releasing music anonymously on YouTube in August 2009. In 2011 he co-founded the record label XO and released three mixtapes, House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence; after signing with Republic Records he compiled them into the album Trilogy (2012), and in 2013 he released his debut studio album, Kiss Land.

Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) and Starboy (2016) both debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and produced Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles including "Can't Feel My Face", "The Hills" and "Starboy"; he also became the first artist to occupy all three top spots of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at once. After Hours (2020) began an album trilogy built around points in time, and its single "Blinding Lights" became the best-performing song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 and the most-streamed song on Spotify; the trilogy continued with Dawn FM (2022) and Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025). In 2021 he headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show.

He is one of the best-selling and most-streamed artists of all time, was the first artist to surpass 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and his After Hours til Dawn Tour (2022–2026) set the record for the highest-grossing tour by a male solo artist. His accolades include 4 Grammy Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards and 22 Juno Awards, and he has been a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme since 2021. He also co-created and starred in the HBO series The Idol (2023) and the 2025 film Hurry Up Tomorrow.