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03rd April, 2016
The Weeknd - A Profile

If you watched the American Music Awards in end November last year, you would’ve noticed one very strange looking artist emerge winner in Favorite Male Artist and Favorite Album categories, the trophy going to The Weeknd. Strange we say for his peculiar hair style that befits a reason why he does it so.

Inspired by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Abel Tesfaye better known all over the world as The Weeknd (again strange name isn’t it, well we will come to it soon) has been growing out his signature hairstyle for four years now, maintaining it with nothing more than an occasional hard shampoo that keeps it in place. But this style has gotten him a lot of names from being compared to a tsunami, a cresting wave, the Elephant Man and many more daringly embarrassing names. Abel falls in a similar category of artists who tamper with their looks. We had Get Lucky duo Daft Punk’s funny stage antics which include wearing suits and strutting around in helmets, keeping their true image away from audience. Though Abel has not tried to shy his face, he is one of the out of the box music makers who think and work differently and make his hair a great conversation point. Though we heard that this hardened piece of hair gives him neck pains when he sleeps, he has no plans to do away with it anytime soon.

So who is this singer we are talking about? He is The Weeknd, a Canadian singer and songwriter who started off his career way back in 2010.

Abel Tesfaye was born on 16th February, 1990, and raised in Scarborough, Canada an only child to Ethiopian parents Makkonen and Samra who came to Canada in the 1980s. His mother did odd jobs to support the family, working tirelessly as her husband was never around to look after the family. English was not the mother tongue at home and so Abel picked up the Amharic language (a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia) instead of English. He attended school at the nearby West Hill Collegiate Institute, but later dropped out due to disinterest. He had a bent for music while growing up and would tune into hip hop, indie - rock and post punk.

When he was about 17 years, he adopted the stage name The Weeknd after he and a friend ‘left one weekend and never came back home’. The spelling was modified to avoid trademark issues with a Canadian band already named The Weekend. But this is just one of reasons why he changed his name and came to be known as The Weeknd.

Another version states that while he was in Toronto, Abel met producer Jeremy Rose, who had an idea for a musical project called "The Weeknd". After trying to pitch the idea to musician Curtis Santiago, Rose hitched onto Abel who he thought might be interested in the project. He played one of his instrumentals for Abel who loved it and decided to go ahead and work with Rose. Rose produced three songs What You Need, Loft Music and The Morning and a few others on which Abel rapped on. But Rose found them unsuitable and decided to do away with the project. One good thing that came out from the collaboration was that Rose let Abel keep the tracks he had produced under the condition that he would ultimately be credited for them when he wanted to use it.

In late 2010, Abel anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under the name "The Weeknd". The song drew attention, and was also featured on a blog posted by Toronto-based rapper Drake. From then on he worked on his music independently and performed from clubs to clubs, on the street and online, until he finally got coverage from Rolling Stone, New York Times and other big publications.

On 21st March, 2011, Abel released the nine-track mix tape ‘House of Balloons’ for free through his website. It featured production by Illangelo and Doc McKinney, although The Weeknd did keep his promise to credit Rose for his tracks. The mix tape was met with critical acclaim and was named as one of ten shortlisted nominees for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.

In July that year, The Weeknd as we will call him now, embarked on a tour that made him all the more famous. He collaborated with Drake and appeared as one of the special guests to Drake's second Annual OVO Fest on 31st July, 2011. Soon The Weeknd released his second mix tape Thursday, once again as a free digital download from The Weeknd's website. His final mix tape, titled Echoes of Silence, was released towards the end of the year. He later decided to label his three mix tapes as the ‘Balloons Trilogy’, each receiving critical acclaim and growing The Weeknd fan base.

In 2012, he released a compilation album ‘Trilogy’ consisting of thirty tracks of remastered versions of the mix tape material and three additional songs. It was released under Republic Records and his own label XO. It also officially credited Rose as a producer and writer on three songs from House of Balloons. ‘Trilogy’ charted at No. 5 on the Canadian Albums Chart and No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 86,000 copies. Shortly after in December, the BBC announced that the Weeknd had been nominated for the Sound of 2013 poll. In May 2013, ‘Trilogy’ was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and double platinum by Music Canada. The Weeknd was surely going places by now.

In May 2013, the Weeknd released two singles from his forthcoming album. Belong to the World and Live for, his title track to his debut studio album ‘Kiss Land’. The album received positive reviews from music critics and reached number two on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Much in demand by now, The Weeknd also appeared on the soundtrack to ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ contributing songs like Devil May Cry and featuring on Elastic Heart by Australian singer Sia. In February 2014, The Weeknd also took a jab and remixed Beyonce’s single Drunk in Love. If you have heard the remix you’d find it total chalk in cheese and a good piece of work from the singer.

In mid 2014, The Weeknd announced a mini tour across America to promote his album and to also see what his fan base was like. Soon after the announcement, he released two new tracks, Often and King of the fall. Once on tour, he released a new song Love me Harder a duet between The Weeknd and Ariana Grande. The song went on to peak at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He closed the year with another super hit song Earned it from the 2015 film ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ which has peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2015 plans were already afoot to release a new album. To start off, The Weeknd released a new song The Hills as a digital download as the first single from his second studio album dubbed, Chapter III. He then went on to release another topper Can’t feel my face. The Weeknd created history becoming the first singer to claim top three spots with Can't feel my face at number 1, The Hills at number 2 and a new song Earned It (from the OST) at number 3. This made him the first artist in the history of Hot 100 charts to earn this distinction.

In August that year, The Weeknd finally released his second studio album, ‘Beauty Behind the Madness’. Upon its release, it debuted atop of Billboard 200. Along with becoming his first number-one album in the country, the album was the second most successful launch of 2015, and became the first album since Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ to stay at the top of the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks. The Weeknd promoted the album by headlining summer music festivals in the US.

In India, The Weeknd is not as yet a big craze, but his songs have a sharp rising fan following. His music is available on Universal Music (India) and his albums are available online too.

The Weeknd has been romantically linked to 18-year-old model/reality-show spawn/Olympic hopeful Bella Hadid since a year or so. Rumor mongers say the now 25 year old has not yet been linked to anyone else besides Bella, though initial reports say that The Weeknd did have a girlfriend in his younger days while at school.

The Weeknd has been slammed many a time for his excessive lyrical content. His R & B style might be accepted by a few who love him, but it also shows the harsher side of the genre. His peculiar hairstyle only adds to his mysterious appearance and songs.

However many music artists love the The Weeknd for his music, his outrageous dressing and his lifestyle. As for us, we love him too.

By Verus Ferreira

 


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