The Weeknd

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was raised in Scarborough, Toronto, by his mother and grandmother after his parents separated. His parents, Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu, were Ethiopian immigrants, and Tesfaye grew up speaking Amharic. He also became fluent in French after attending a French immersion school and was raised in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian tradition.

Tesfaye attended West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute before leaving school at 17. He moved to Parkdale with two friends, including La Mar Taylor, who later became his creative director. The stage name The Weeknd was inspired by his decision to leave home for a weekend and not return, with the final letter removed to avoid trademark issues involving the Canadian band the Weekend.

Before adopting his best-known name, Tesfaye performed as Kin Kane in the hip-hop duo Bulleez n Nerdz and participated in the production team the Noise. He has described a period of heavy drug use during his youth and later characterised himself as “sober lite,” saying he had stopped using drugs apart from marijuana and drank less alcohol than before. In 2023, he revealed that he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Tesfaye began releasing music anonymously online in 2009. After meeting producer Jeremy Rose, he recorded "The Morning," "Loft Music," and "What You Need." He uploaded the songs to YouTube in late 2010 under the username “xoxxxoooxo,” and their profile grew after Canadian rapper Drake highlighted them on his blog.

In 2011, Tesfaye released the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence as free digital projects. The atmospheric recordings combined alternative R&B with dream pop, post-punk, and electronic influences. House of Balloons was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, while the three-mixtape run established his anonymous, visually distinctive persona.

Tesfaye performed publicly for the first time at Toronto’s Mod Club in July 2011 and later appeared at Drake’s OVO Fest. He contributed as a songwriter, producer, and featured artist to Drake’s album Take Care, including the song "Crew Love." Tesfaye also co-founded XO in 2011 with Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, Amir “Cash” Esmailian, and La Mar Taylor.

Tesfaye signed with Republic Records in 2012, with XO operating as a subsidiary label. Later that year, he released Trilogy, a compilation of remastered versions of his three 2011 mixtapes with three additional songs. The album reached number four on the US Billboard 200 and became a platinum-certified release in the United States.

His debut studio album, Kiss Land, followed in 2013. He expanded his audience through international performances, soundtrack contributions to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and collaborations with Ariana Grande, including the top-ten single "Love Me Harder." His song "Earned It," written for Fifty Shades of Grey, earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

Beauty Behind the Madness was released in 2015 and became his first US number-one album. It included "The Hills," "Can't Feel My Face," and "Earned It." In one week, Tesfaye occupied all three top positions on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, a first in the chart’s history. His next album, Starboy, was released in 2016 and featured collaborations with Daft Punk, Kendrick Lamar, and Lana Del Rey. The title song and "I Feel It Coming" marked his two collaborations with Daft Punk.

Tesfaye released the extended play My Dear Melancholy in 2018, returning to the moody, atmospheric style of his early mixtapes. He also created the Apple Music 1 radio show Memento Mori, which featured music that influenced his recordings and campaigns for later albums.

His fourth studio album, After Hours, arrived in 2020. The album topped the Billboard 200 and produced the singles "Heartless," "Save Your Tears," and "Blinding Lights." The latter became the best-performing song in Billboard Hot 100 history and later became Spotify’s most-streamed song. Tesfaye headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show in 2021, becoming the first Canadian solo artist to headline the event.

Dawn FM followed in 2022 as a dance-pop and synth-pop project narrated in part by Jim Carrey. Tesfaye later co-created and starred in the HBO series The Idol alongside Lily-Rose Depp. His sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, was released in 2025 and completed the trilogy begun with After Hours and continued by Dawn FM. He also starred in the companion film Hurry Up Tomorrow with Jenna Ortega, directed by Trey Edward Shults.

Tesfaye’s music is associated with alternative R&B, pop, hip-hop, and dance music. His early work is marked by slow tempos, heavy bass, echoing production, and lyrics about sex, drugs, partying, alienation, and emotional pain. His later albums moved toward electropop, new wave, dream pop, dance-pop, and synth-pop. He has cited Michael Jackson, Prince, R. Kelly, Aster Aweke, Lana Del Rey, David Bowie, Deftones, and Daft Punk among his influences.

His screen work includes an appearance as himself in the 2019 film Uncut Gems, voice and guest roles in American Dad! and Robot Chicken, and the role of Tedros in The Idol. He also starred in and contributed music to Hurry Up Tomorrow.

Tesfaye was appointed a United Nations World Food Programme goodwill ambassador in 2021. He has supported Ethiopian studies and language programmes at the University of Toronto, racial-justice organisations, humanitarian relief in Ethiopia and Gaza, and educational support for students experiencing homelessness. He also established the XO Humanitarian Fund in partnership with the World Food Programme.