Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, known professionally as The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has made a significant impact in contemporary popular music. With his unconventional music production, artistic reinventions, and falsetto register, he has garnered several accolades, which include four Grammy Awards, twenty Billboard Music Awards, twenty-two Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, and nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Born and raised in Toronto, Tesfaye's identity was initially shrouded in mystery until he began anonymously releasing music on YouTube in 2009. Later, in 2011, he co-founded the XO record label and gained recognition for his style of contemporary and alternative R&B through his mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. In 2012, he signed with Republic Records and re-released the mixtapes as the compilation album Trilogy.
Tesfaye continued to rise through his exploration of dark-wave in his debut studio album Kiss Land (2013), which debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. He also contributed to film soundtracks, with his acclaimed single Earned It from Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) winning the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance. Tesfaye's pop-leaning second album Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) earned him critical and commercial success. The album consisted of chart-topping singles, such as Can't Feel My Face and The Hills, which won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album and was nominated for Album of the Year.
Tesfaye's trap-infused third studio album Starboy (2016), with the US number-one single of the same name and Die For You, won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album. His critically acclaimed fourth studio album After Hours (2020), in which he explored new wave and dream pop, featured chart record-setting single Blinding Lights, and won three MTV Video Music Awards. Tesfaye's dance-pop inspired fifth album Dawn FM (2022) included the US top-ten single Take My Breath.
With over 75 million records sold and several streaming and Billboard chart records, Tesfaye has become one of the world's best-selling music artists. He is the first Canadian artist to earn four diamond-certified singles from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three spots on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Blinding Lights became the most-streamed song in Spotify history and is ranked as the greatest Hot 100 song in Billboard history.
In addition to making his mark in music, Tesfaye was listed by Time as one of the world's most influential people in 2020. He was also dubbed the world's most popular artist by Guinness World Records in 2023. Tesfaye is also an advocate for racial equality and food security, leading to his appointment as a World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador in 2021.
