The Weeknd changes his name to Abel Tesfaye

Canadian pop star The Weeknd has reverted to his birth name Abel Tesfaye on his social media accounts.

The singer, known for his catchy pop tunes like Blinding Lights, asked his fans on Twitter in April if he should make the change.

“ABEL formally known as The Weeknd?” he asked his fans in a tweet that received over one hundred thousand likes.

The name change comes after the award-winning artist revealed he wanted to “kill The Weeknd” to W Magazine. “I’m going through a cathartic path right now. It’s getting to a place and time where I’m getting ready to close The Weeknd chapter.”

The artist has previously said his name came about after he dropped out of school and took his mattress “leaving one weekend and never coming home”, the Daily Mail reported. But he told W Magazine: “As the Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.” He added that his next album would probably be his “last hurrah” under that name.

Born in Toronto to Ethiopian immigrants, Tesfaye rose to fame after he uploaded his first songs to YouTube in 2010, showcasing a dark, explicit strand of R&B that delved into drug use, casual sex and alienation.

Canadian rapper Drake then posted those early demos to his personal blog; allowing Tesfaye to produce a nine-song mixtape, House of Balloons, which he released as a free download.

During his music career, he has won four Grammy awards, had more than 45 platinum singles and albums and broken many music records. In March 2023, the Guinness World Records declared him the most popular artist in the world due to the number of monthly listeners he had on Spotify. As of March 2023, the 33-year-old had 111.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify and was the first artist to have 100 million monthly listeners on the streaming app.

“The Weeknd currently has almost 30 million more monthly listeners than second-placed Miley Cyrus (82.4 million)” they wrote in a press release.

(Source: BBC News)