2023-05-16 12:13:41
The Weeknd no longer wants to be The Weeknd. The Grammy award winner, who was born in Canada 33 years ago as the son of Ethiopian immigrants, will also go through life professionally under his real name Abel Tesfaye. Since Monday he has been operating under his birth name on social media, but he kept the handle “The Weeknd” on Instagram and Twitter.
In an interview with “W Magazine” a few weeks ago, the singer indicated that he wanted to reinvent himself musically. “I am on a purifying journey. It’s getting close to a point where it’s time to close The Weeknd,” said Tesfaye.
The world’s most successful representative of pop music
After evaluating Spotify data, the Guinness Book of Records named the Canadian the world’s most successful representative of pop music at the end of March. With titles like “Blinding Lights” and “Die For You”, the singer was the first to reach more than 100 million listeners on the streaming service in one month.
The Weeknd had already conducted an unofficial poll on Twitter in April: “Abel, formerly known as The Weeknd?” he wrote and received more than 124,000 likes. The phrase “formerly known as” is also reminiscent of the pop legend Prince, who in the meantime dropped his name due to a dispute with his record company and appeared under a symbol. At the time, many just called him “The artist formerly known as Prince”.
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