The Weeknd

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (Amharic: አቤል መኮንን ተስፋዬ; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Regarded as an influential figure in popular music, he is known for his light-lyric tenor vocal range and falsetto, as well as his alternative R&B sound. His accolades include four Grammy Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 22 Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, and a Latin Grammy Award.

Tesfaye began releasing music anonymously in 2009. After co-founding the record label XO, he released three mixtapes—House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence—in 2011, and gained recognition for his alternative R&B sound. He signed with Republic Records to compile the mixtapes into the compilation album Trilogy (2012), and release his debut studio album, Kiss Land (2013) the following year. Following collaborations and film soundtrack contributions from 2013 and 2014, Tesfaye blended his alternative R&B sound with pop on his second and third studio albums, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) and Starboy (2016); both debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and featured the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Can't Feel My Face", "The Hills", "Starboy", and "Die for You".

He returned to his alternative R&B-sound for his debut EP, My Dear Melancholy (2018), featuring the US top-ten single "Call Out My Name". He began an album trilogy based on three time points and explored the dream pop and new wave genres starting with fourth studio album, After Hours (2020), which spawned the chart-topping singles "Heartless" and "Save Your Tears", as well as "Blinding Lights", which became the best-performing song in the Billboard Hot 100's history. He then explored dance-pop, with his second installment and fifth album, Dawn FM (2022), featuring the US top-ten single, "Take My Breath". In 2023, he co-created and starred in the controversial HBO drama series The Idol, which was received as a critical failure. His sixth album and third and trilogy conclusion, Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025), included the US top-five single "Timeless" and a poorly received companion film of the same name.

Tesfaye is one of the best-selling artists of all time with estimated sales of over 75 million units. He has been recognized for three diamond-certified singles from the RIAA. Tesfaye was listed by Time as one of the world's most influential people in 2020. After Hours would later go on to be the most-streamed R&B album in history, while his longest-spanning After Hours til Dawn Tour set the record for the highest-grossing R&B tour in history. Tesfaye co-founded the record label XO in 2021 and hosted the Apple Music 1 radio show Memento Mori from 2018 to 2022. He has collaborated with fashion brands BAPE, Puma and H&M, coffee brand Nespresso, soccer club Paris Saint-Germain, and video games Fortnite and Roblox, among others. In 2020, he launched the incubator HXOUSE of which he serves as a sleeping partner, and was appointed goodwill ambassador for the World Food Programme in 2021. He has also donated to various causes and expressed activism over racial equality and food security.