The Weeknd - Who Really Is He?
Who is The Weeknd? Who’s this guy who has got the world dancing on his finger? Who’s he with 4x Grammys, 20x Billboard Music Awards, and countless other accolades. Surely, he must be great at his craft at least that he has garnered such a strong backing? He must have a really strong industry backing, right? Somewhat yes, mostly no… To know who The Weeknd is we must first get to know Abel Tesfaye.
The birth of a Pop Star
Born on 16th February 1990, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd was born to Ethiopian Immigrants, Makkonen Tesfaye, and Samrawit Hailu in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Soon after he was born, his parents separated, and Abel was raised by his mother all alone. In many interviews Abel says that, “There was no father figure” in his life.
His mother Samra did everything on her own, she worked multiple jobs - nurse, carer, you name it and she did it just to raise Abel and sustain their small family. His Grand Mother played a vital role in his mother’s absence and took care of him when Samra was hustling.
Living in a rough neighborhood has its own lows, one being Abel started to drift away from his family and soon at the age of 17, he left his home… for good.
Losing Direction at 17
At 17, he dropped out of his school, and started “hustling the streets” with one of his friends. During this period, Abel started drifting into a period of instability that included homelessness, drugs, petty crime and basically anything that helped him stay afloat. Abel, when asked about this certain phase of his life, often reminisces it as being the one that helped him “find himself by losing it all”. According to him, the drugs numbed him enough to forget the reality of his situation.
He was trying to make it big by losing it all and he could have lost it all if not for what came next…
Getting Recognised By The Streets
In 2010, a number of anonymous tracks started making their way on the online forums. These tracks were visceral, narcotic and unsettlingly dark… It was nothing the world has witnessed before. What actually was funny was the fact that The Weeknd has always had an angelic voice too mellow, too sweet to be singing the things that were on those early tracks and countless albums that followed. No one knew who was “The Weeknd”, earlier speculations were that it was a band of 3-4 people and one of them was the guy who could be heard on all of the tracks singing lyrics like, “Ride it out, now I know you wanna scream, baby”. [Lyrics from Loft Music (Trilogy)]
However absurd the lyrics were on those “unknown” songs, one thing stuck with the people, all of these tracks stuck to the audience as they talked about the reality of life for teens and people in their early 20s alike. This connection with his audience paid off for The Weeknd big time when he was noticed by then “King of Pop” Drake.
OVOXO - An Era That Ended So Soon… For Good
Aubrey Graham, better known as Drake started supporting The Weeknd when he first listened to his anonymous tracks online and openly shared them with his strong audience. The Weeknd made his appearance officially for the first time on Drake’s 2011 album “Take Care” including songs like,”Crew Love” “Shot For Me” and “The Ride”. All of these songs including the album went 6x Platinum in multiple countries including USA, Canada, The UK etc., while also bagging a Grammy that year for the “Best Rap Album” of the year.
Around this time when they were enjoying the success, Drake officially invited The Weeknd to join OVO, Drake’s music label as an artist, but The Weeknd had other plans & politely (rightfully so) declined the proposal, giving the reasoning of retaining his creative and business independence.
By 2012, The Weeknd signed a distribution deal with Republic Records and while building his own label - XO Records.
XO Records
XO Records came into formation in a time of need. It was loosely formed as a creative collective tied to his early mixtapes and other independent works. In 2012, in partnership with Republic Records and Universal Records, XO Records was officially launched. Since then XO Records or XO for short, has grown to not only host all of The Weeknd’s discography but that of talented artists like NAV and Belly and the likes of them.
More than just a record label XO today has become The Weeknd’s alter ego, his foundation dare I say. With this foundation, The Weeknd was more than ready to rule the global pop & R&B charts for years to come.
The Undisputed King of R&B & Pop
The moment The Weeknd entered R&B he has been redefining the whole genre. From Beauty Behind The Madness to Starboy he established himself as the new king of Pop with every song a bigger hit than the other. With After Hours, came the long awaited commercial success that he deserved. It went 3x Platinum in the USA and 5x Platinum in Canada giving him the push he needed to lead the billboard for the next few years. Blinding Lights, the lead single in After Hours was dominating the Billboard Hot 100, a record never seen before, including a historic 57 consecutive weeks in the top 10. Where singles leave the No.1 spot in a week or two, Blinding Lights stayed there for 4, this proved that good sound production can make the impossible possible.
Also, it’s not just the case with Blinding Lights, there was a brief period where almost every song in the After Hours album was leading the charts in some way or the other.
In simple terms, The Weeknd knows the sound his audience resonates with and he constantly overdelivers and so has rightfully earned to be the undisputed King of R&B & Pop. As of now it's been 5 years since he dethroned Taylor Swift as the world’s No.1 artist, that definitely says something about his craft.
So.. Who Actually Is The Weeknd?
In simple terms, Abel Tesfaye (In 2014, he legally got his middle name Makonnen out of his official records to cut the final thread tying him to his father) or The Weeknd is a revolutionary artist who came from a fragmented childhood with loads of instabilities. He made sure to take all the disadvantages he had and build a legacy through them. From building XO records to building his own global identity, Abel’s career was shaped by deliberate & crucial decisions that led him to the No. 1 spot worldwide today. His music has constantly shaped the future of R&B music, with artists like Bryson Tiller and Black Atlass coming forward and admitting how if not for Abel’s music, they might have not even started making music themselves.
For me and countless others, The Weeknd is more than just another R&B and Pop music artist, for us he is that one artist who started with a hunger so strong that hasn’t been satiated yet.
I’ll end this article with one of his popular lyrics
“Every time you try to forget who I am
I'll be right there to remind you again
You know me
You know me”
[Lyrics from - Reminder (Starboy)]