Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known by his stage name The Weeknd (pronounced "weekend"), is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer. Tesfaye anonymously uploaded a few songs to YouTube under the name "The Weeknd" in 2010 and released critically-acclaimed mixtapes House of Balloons , Thursday , and Echoes of Silence in 2011. Mixtapes were later remastered and rereleased on the compilation album Trilogy (2012), after he signed a contract with Republic Records and created his own record label XO.
Tesfaye has had three release numbers ( Beauty Behind the Madness by 2015, Starboy in 2016, and My Dear Melancholy, by 2018) and other top two releases ( Kiss Land in 2013) on US Billboard 200. He has received eight top-ten entries on Billboard Hot 100: "Love Me Harder" with Ariana Grande, "Earned It", "I Feel It Coming", "Pray for Me" with Kendrick Lamar, "Call Out My Name", and number one single "The Hills", "Can not Feel My Face ", and" Starboy ". In 2015, Tesfaye became the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three positions on the Billboard Hot R & amp; Song B charts with "Can not Feel My Face", "Earned It", and "The Hills". Tesfaye has won three Grammy Awards and nine Juno Awards.
Video The Weeknd
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Tesfaye was born on February 16, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in the district of Scarborough, at the eastern end of the city. She is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, the Ethiopian immigrants to Canada in the late 1980s.
In his youth Tesfaye, his mother would work some work to support the family, including nursing and catering jobs. This coincides with attending a night school to learn English. Tesfaye's father left the family when he was a toddler, so Tesfaye was raised by his grandmother and mother. While living with his grandmother, Tesfaye studied Amharic, whom he also spoke with his mother, and attended Ethiopian Orthodox church services. Tesfaye stated in an interview that about his father "I saw him vaguely when I was six years old, and then again when I was 11 or 12 years old, and he has new families and children I do not even know where he lives - I "I'll see it for, like, night. I'm sure he's a great guy. I never judged her. He's not rude, he's not an alcoholic, he's not a bastard. He just is not there. "
Tesfaye describes herself as a teenage movie " KIDS without AIDS". Tesfaye claimed he started smoking marijuana at the age of 11, and then turned to harsher drugs. Tesfaye claims he is often shoplifting to complement the use of ecstasy, oxycodone, xanax, cocaine, psilocybin, and ketamine.
Tesfaye attended the West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Toronto, from which he did not graduate from high school, leaving it all in 2007. After that Tesfaye also left home. Tesfaye moved into the Parkdale neighborhood of Toronto. Tesfaye has admitted his stage name as inspired by his high school dropout status claiming "after [he] left one weekend and never returned home", even though producer Jeremy Rose claimed the name was his idea. The spelling was modified to avoid trademark issues with Canadian band The Weekend.
Maps The Weeknd
Careers
2010-2011: Beginning of career
Tesfaye met Jeremy Rose in 2010, a producer who has ideas for music projects R & amp; B which is dark. After initially trying to throw the idea into Santiago's Curtis musician, Rose plays one of her instrumental for Tesfaye, whose free style tap into her. This led both to collaborate in an album. Rose produces three songs - "What You Need", "Loft Music", and "The Morning" - and others who have knocked Tesfaye, are finally removed. Rose lets Tesfaye keep a track of her results on condition that she will eventually be credited to them. In December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded "What You Need", "Music Loft" and "The Morning" to YouTube under her stage name, even though her identity was initially unknown. The songs drew attention online, and then put in a blog post from Drake. The songs then received coverage from various media, including Pitchfork and The New York Times . Before adopting the stage name "The Weeknd", he worked under the strains of "The Noise" and "Kin Kane".
On March 21, 2011, Tesfaye released her own debut mixtape House of Balloons . The mixtape includes production from Canadian producers Illangelo and Doc McKinney, and includes tracks produced by Rose, though, he does not accept production credits. House of Balloons was greeted with critical acclaim. It was named one of ten nominees selected for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.
Tesfaye embarked on a Toronto tour, with her first live show at Mod Club City. Drake is present to see the show, which lasts for ninety minutes. Drake approached Tesfaye and described the potential musical collaboration between the two. Tesfaye accompanied Drake at various shows, often appearing as an opening act for the show scheduled at Molson Canadian Amphitheater, and performing at the second annual OVO Festival in July. During the summer of 2011, Tesfaye contributed to five songs in Drake's Take Care , both as a leading writer and artist.
Tesfaye refrained from participating in the interview, choosing to communicate via Twitter, after the album was released. It is credited as a successful advertising tactic for the second Tesfaye mixtape Thursday , released on August 18, 2011. It also bears the praise of music critics. The third Testape Tesfaye Echoes of Silence was released on December 21, 2011, a year after its debut single, and also saw positive critical reception.
After this release, three mixtapes are collectively known as the Balloons Trilogy, and see Tesfaye receiving offers from various record labels.
2012-2014: Trilogy and Kiss Land
In April 2012, Tesfaye embarked on his first tour in the United States, with appearances at the Coachella Festival. The tour peaked in New York with sold-out sold out shows, positively reviewed by Rolling Stone . Tesfaye expanded its tour to accompany Europe, performing at various European festivals, including the Primavera Sound Festival in Spain and Portugal, and the Wireless Festival in London. Including "Dirty Diana" on her performance in London, she received positive responses from both Katy Perry and Florence Welch, who noted the singer's ability to successfully perform complex songs. In June, Balloons Trilogy was downgraded to more than 8 million downloads, allowing Tesfaye to start an official commercial release of the project later that year.
In September 2012, Tesfaye signed a contract with Republic Records in a joint venture with his own XO. The compilation album for mixtapes titled Trilogy , was released two months later, and consisted of several versions of the remastered song, as well as three additional songs. It was also officially credited Rose as a producer and writer on three songs from the House of Balloons that he initially did not receive credit. Trilogy charted at number four on the US Billboard 200 with first week sales of 86,000 copies. It also debuted at number five on the Canada Albums Ladder, with similar sales. The trilogy was then certified as platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and double-platinum by Music Canada in May 2013. He was also nominated for the Sound of the Sound of 2013 award by the BBC a week later.
On May 16, 2013, Tesfaye aired the title track for her debut studio album Kiss Land and announced the release date of the album on September 10th. The album was later promoted by the single "Belong to the World" and "Live For" featuring Drake, as well as with Tesfaye embarking on The Fall a week before the album's release. Upon release, Kiss Land debuted at number two in the US Billboard 200, selling 96,000 copies. It was later confirmed to have sold over 273,000 copies in the United States, as well as received generally positive reviews from music critics.
Tesfaye appeared on the 20/20 Experience World Tour, joining Justin Timberlake's main acting for six shows. It is three weeks prior to his contribution to the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), contributing "Devil May Cry", as well as featuring in Sia's "Elastic Heart". The latter proved to be the second lead single from the soundtrack.
In 2014, Tesfaye meremix "Drunk in Love", a single by BeyoncÃÆ' à © from his eponymous studio album. Maintaining the theme and concept of the song, he detailed the synopsis from a man's perspective. The remix was well received, and came a few days before Tesfaye's first headfir tour announcement, entitled touring the King of Autumn. The tour was held throughout the United States in September and October, and saw Schoolboy Q and JhenÃÆ' à © Aiko as a supporting act. It watches for his release from the "Frequent" single, which led to speculation it was the first single from his second studio album. He then collaborated with Ariana Grande on a duet titled "Love Me Harder", which peaked at number seven on Billboard Hot 100. A few days later, he released "Earned It", a single from Fifty Shades of Gray (2015). This marks his contribution to a film, and peaks at number three on Billboard Hot 100.
2015: The Beauty Behind Madness
After Tesfaye won the Centric Award at the 2015 BET Awards, she performed "Earned It" with Alicia Keys, and debuted the song "The Hills". "The Hills" was later released for digital downloads, and debuted at number twenty on Billboard Hot 100. The single then went on to the top of the charts, marking Tesfaye's first single number one. The single is certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The next three songs are leaked online on the days in question. On June 8, "Can not Feel My Face", one of the leaked songs, was released as the second single, after its performance at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The song debuted at number twenty-four on Billboard Hot 100, and reached number one on Hot 100, making it his top 10 hit of the three, and hit number one both in the United States.. He occupied all three slots in Billboard's Hot R & amp; B Songs charts simultaneously with the singles, becoming the first artist in history to achieve this. He titled FVDED in the Park, a festival in Surrey, British Columbia. Tesfaye was unveiled as one of the musical faces of Apple Music's streaming service, a position he held with frequent collaborators Drake. During the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, Apple debuted in two parts of a commercial promotion featuring Tesfaye, which features guest appearances from John Travolta. It was revealed that her second studio album would be titled Beauty Behind the Madness .
Beauty Behind the Madness was released on August 28, 2015, and debuted on Billboard 200, generating 412,000 equivalent album units in its first week. It reached the top 10 in more than ten countries, as well as reaching number one in Canada, Australia, Norway, and the UK. The album was promoted by Tesfaye who was headlining various summer music festivals, including Lollapalooza, the Summer Music Festival Hard, and the Bumbershoot Festival. He announced his first large-scale tour in the United States, which began in November, and ends in December. The album achieved double platinum in the US, and sold 1.5 million copies worldwide. The album is reported as the most-aired album throughout 2015, with over 60 million, and is ranked on several lists related to this year's album details.
On September 8th, Tesfaye became the first male artist to simultaneously hold the top three on the Billboard Hot R & amp; B Songs, with three singles preceding the release of his album. They all went platinum in the United States. After engaging in several musical collaborations with Belly, Meek Mill, and Travis Scott, Tesfaye is featured on "Low Life", the triple platinum single from the fourth studio album Future. Tesfaye appeared on Saturday Night Live with actress Amy Schumer, performing as a performing music guest on October 10th. This is his first appearance on the show as a solo artist, after performing with Ariana Grande to perform "Love Me Harder".
2016-present: Starboy and My Dear Melancholy
Tesfaye is featured on "FML", a song on Kanye West The Life of Pablo . It marks the second collaboration between couples, with the West providing production and writing about "Tell Your Friends" from Beauty Behind the Madness . Tesfaye appeared on "6 Inch", the fifth song in Beyoncà © à © 's Lemonade . He was announced by Spotify as one of the five most flowing artists in their first year in partnership with Sony to provide streaming services on PlayStation 4.
On August 24, in preparation for her third studio album, Executive Vice President of Republic Records Wendy Goldstein confirmed Tesfaye started a collaboration with French electronic music duo Daft Punk. A month later, the album title was announced as Starboy , and has a November 25 release date. He released the album's title track, which featured Daft Punk. The song received platinum certification and went to number one in the United States, as well as in various other countries. The second collaboration with Daft Punk, titled "I Feel It Coming", was released a week after the album's release, in addition to the solo efforts of "Party Monster" and "False Alarm". Tesfaye returns to Saturday Night Live on October 10th, performs "Starboy" and "False Alarm". She released a 12 minute short film, titled M A N I A , on November 23rd. Directed by Grant Singer, he features excerpts from the album, including footage from "All I Know" featuring Future, "Sidewalks" featuring Kendrick Lamar, "Secrets" and "Die for You".
In 2017, Tesfaye appeared on the sixth studio album of the Future, as well as on the inaugural single from Nav, signed by XO in January. It became the first feature used by Lana Del Rey, appearing on "Lust for Life", the title track and the second single from the fifth studio album. She appeared in French Montana "A Lie", the third single from her second album Jungle Rules and on her debut single Cashmere Cat "Wild Love" from her album 9 . She appeared in Virgil Abloh's music video-directed to "XO Tour Llif3" Lil Uzi Vert along with XO signee Nav. He later appeared on Lil Uzi Vert's debut album and Gucci Mane's eleventh studio album. Davis. He earned a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for Starboy and finally won the award.
On January 31, 2018, Top Dawg Entertainment revealed the full track list of Kendrick Lamar-curate's Kendrick Lamar-curate soundtrack album with Tesfaye featured on one of the songs, "Pray for Me". On February 2nd, 2018, was released as the third single soundtrack. This marks the second collaboration between Tesfaye and Lamar, after the song "Sidewalk" on the Starboy album.
On March 27, 2018, Tesfaye began to be published for a new official release on Instagram posts. On March 29, 2018, a billboard appeared in London, England promoting an album that might be titled My Dear Melancholy and on the same day the project was officially announced. On March 30, 2018, the extended game My Dear Melancholy was released. In May 2018, it was reported that Tesfaye will release a follow-up EP for My Dear Melancholy titled We're Alone Together. XXL Abel .
Arts
Tesfaye quotes Michael Jackson, Prince, and R. Kelly as the main musical inspiration. He has hooked Jackson's music as key in spurring him to become a singer, referencing the lyrics to "Dirty Diana" as an example. He also said the style of high flying vocals was influenced by habesha singers such as Aster Aweke. He grew up listening to various musical genres, including soul, calm storms, hip hop, funk, indie rock, and post-punk.
Tesfaye's songs are "built around production, crepuscular foggy", and feature slow tempo, thundering bass, and sad echoes. Tesfaye sings on the falsetto list, showing a seductive tone. J. D. Considine found the "shaky quality" of his singing similar to Michael Jackson, but wrote that he alienated Jackson's "strong base in the blues" to widen the more Arab-influenced ones. The music combines an unconventional sample in R & amp; B, including punk and alternative rock. Marc Hogan of Spin says that Tesfaye's sample tends to "pull from approved rock critic sources, although in general people who have shared elements of sexual threat", with artist samples such as Beach House, Siouxsie and Banshees and Aaliyah. Tesfaye works mostly with producers Illangelo and Doc McKinney, whom Ian Cohen Pitchfork Media credits by developing "state-of-the-art" R & amp; B templates with artist. In concert, Tesfaye took over his digital production with a suite-like aesthetic rock.
The emotional and sad lyrics often express feelings of hurt and deal with subject matter such as sex, drugs, and partying. Hermione Hoby from The Guardian characterizes Tesfaye's songs as "slow-narcissistic jam" and describes their message as "partying is an existential experience, sex is full of alienation, and everything registers as unreal and unpleasant ". The Guardian ' s Paul MacInnes has stated that he saw Tesfaye's three mixtapes as a "party trajectory, after a rough party and drunk". Anupa Mistry of Toronto Standards observed all of her mixtapes as "supine actors, stoned zombie women... whose legs are willing to separate after being dissolved with substances and turned into a threat only when [he] down and feel vulnerable ". Tesfaye has seen that, by singing vulgar and stupid lyrics in an elegant and sexy way, he pays homage to R. Kelly and Prince.
Tesfaye has helped expand the music palette of R & amp; B to combine indie and electronic styles; his work has been categorized by the R & amp; B alternative. Mistry wrote that he "will be praised as the future of R & D music - because [he] is a black singer, not because he makes quantitative, canonical R & B." AllMusic's Andy Kellman categorizes him as an "alternative R & amp; B acting". For his third album Starboy, Tesfaye quotes David Bowie, Prince of The Smiths, Bad Brains, Talking Heads, DeBarge, 50 Cent, Wu-Tang Clan, and Eminem as his influence.
Business enterprise
During his fall American tour promoting Kiss Land, Tesfaye collaborated with the ONE condom-producing company to distribute a limited-edition condom on the show. They display the visual identity of the new album with Oxcy - the album mascot - printed on one side.
In November 2015, to further promote Beauty Behind the Madness, Tesfaye collaborated with PAX Labs to release a limited edition version of PAX 2 vaporizer, an electronic cigarette that can be used in events during the Madness Fall Tour. The cigarette features a "xo" branding on the front, and has the ability to play "The Hills" when it is turned on. With the original PAX 2 for $ 279.99, a limited edition cigarette costs $ 324.99. PAX also acted as the official sponsor for the tour, bringing VIP backstage special events for fans who buy packages that include cigarettes. PAX Labs Chief Marketing Officer Richard Mumby stated "Music and fashion always fit naturally for Pax... This is the perfect opportunity to unify Weekend style with our technology."
In 2016, Tesfaye announced a partnership with Puma, as a Global Brand ambassador, for the company's "Run the Streets" campaign. Launched in early November, with a final collection made to coincide with the Starboy release. He also hosts several pop-up retail stores for the "Starboy: Limited Capsule" collection, available in North America, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto. With this partnership, Tesfaye also released three capsule collections named PUMA X XO including T-shirts, hats, sweapants, bomber jackets and a pair of shoes called Parallels.
Tesfaye has also started its own XO branded merchandise, followed by collaboration with H & amp; M to present Spring 2017 campaigns. The campaign will feature a new collaboration piece developed with the singers brand, and released on March 2, 2017. Tesfaye collaborated with H & amp; M again for the fall collection, however, after the incident that he described as "very offensive" in 2018, he broke with the company.
In May 2017, Tesfaye had a limited edition pop-up sale for "Limitedbased Starboy Capsule Collection 2017". This collection is available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami Beach, Houston, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Tesfaye has worked closely with artists and designers such as Kidult, Alexander Wang and Futura for small and sometimes exclusive capsule collections.
In October 2017, Tesfaye began marketing and promoting partnerships with Marvel on Instagram. A week later, she attended New York Comic-Con and it was revealed that a Starboy comic book will be released on June 13, 2018, with the title character being a superhero model that imitates herself.
Personal life
Tesfaye began dating Bella Hadid models early in 2015; the couple was first seen together in April in Coachella. Hadid later starred in his music video "In the Night" in December. They also made a red carpet appearance as a couple at the 2016 Grammy Awards. On November 11, 2016, it was reported that the couple had split up; citing their conflicting schedules as an excuse for termination of the relationship. Tesfaye reportedly started dating Selena Gomez in January 2017 and they moved together for a while in September 2017 in Greenwich Village, New York. They broke up in October 2017.
Tesfaye often uses drugs to help overcome the author's block on previous albums and also abuse illegal substances such as "... Ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, mold and cough syrup". Speaking in December 2013, Tesfaye said that drugs are a "sustainer" for him when writing music. On social media he usually crossed out his first name with "xo". According to writer Hermione Hoby, it was intended as an emoticon for "kisses and hugs", while VH1's Zara Golden stated that it was a reference to recreation of ecstasy and oxycodone. He then changed the grip on his social media to reflect his stage name in preparation for the release of Starboy.
Tesfaye's hairstyle has been claimed to have been partly inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat and has been described as his best known character. In an interview, he detailed that he started developing it in 2011, and commented on the ease in defending it, with "loud shampoo occasionally". He finally cut his hair in 2016 hair before the release of Starboy.
In his spare time, he likes to watch television and video game fans who are fond of it. In the context of the media reporting cases of police brutality, in 2016, he expressed disdain, tweeting the "blue-life killing". In May 2016, Tesfaye and Belly canceled a performance at Jimmy Kimmel Live! because Donald Trump is present.
Legal issues
In January 2015, Tesfaye was arrested for punching a Las Vegas police officer. Tesfaye admitted there was no contest, and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service. In December 2015, Tesfaye was sued by Cutting Edge Music, alleging that the bass line for "The Hills" featured in the score for The Machine .
Philanthropy
Before serving the Bikila Award for Professional Excellence in 2014, Tesfaye donated $ 50,000 for a class at the University of Toronto in Ge'ez, the classic language of Ethiopia. In August 2016 he continued his donation to University Of Toronto, in the creation of a new Etiology Study program.
In May 2016 Tesfaye has also donated $ 50,000 to Orthodox Church of Tewahedo St. Mary Ethiopian in Toronto, Canada. In August 2016, Tesfaye also donated $ 250,000 to the Black Lives Matter. In December 2015, he worked with the Ryan Seacrest foundation to visit the Children's Hospital in Atlanta.
In June 2017, Tesfaye donated $ 100,000 to the Suubi Health Center, a maternity and children's medical facility in Budondo, Uganda. Tesfaye was inspired to support the center after knowing the work of his friend, French Montana, with Global Citizen and Mama Hope to help raise awareness for Suubi and the people of Uganda.
Discography
- Kiss Land (2013)
- Beauty Behind the Madness (2015)
- Starboy (2016)
Awards and nominations
Tesfaye has won three Grammy Awards, eight Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, nine Juno Awards, and has been nominated for one Academy Award.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia