Top 20 interesting Facts about The Weeknd

Top 20 Interesting Facts about The Weeknd

*Originally published by Lynn June 2022 and Updated by Cyndi K on January 21st, 2024 at 10.30 pm

The Weeknd is a Canadian singer-songwriter and record producer who is regarded as one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with over 75 million records sold.

He is best known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism. His music often explores escapism, romance, and melancholia, and is often inspired by personal experiences.

The weeknd has received numerous accolades, including four Grammy Awards, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 17 Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award, a Latin Grammy Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Below, we discuss the top 10 interesting facts about The Weeknd;

1. The weeknd’s birth name

A young Abel Makkonen Tesfaye – Pinterest

The weeknd was born on February 16, 1990, as Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. He has admitted to hating his name when he was a teen and opted to adapt a stage moniker.

For his first name, Baby Names reports that “Abel” is a Biblical moniker that means “a breath” in Hebrew. His middle name, “Makkonen,” was passed down to him from his dad, Makkonen Tesfaye. As for his last name, “Tesfaye,” roughly translates to “my hope,” according to Names.org.

2. He was raised by a single parent

The Weeknd and his mother – Twitter

The weeknd’s parents separated shortly after his birth. He was raised by his mother and grandmother and rarely saw his father.

In an interview he explains, “I saw him vaguely when I was six, and then again when I was 11 or 12, and he had a new family and kids. I don’t even know where he lived — I’d see him for, like, a night.”

Despite his strained relationship between him and his father, there doesn’t seem to be bad blood between them as he further explains, “I’m sure he’s a great guy. I never judged him. He wasn’t abusive, he wasn’t an alcoholic, he wasn’t an asshole. He just wasn’t there.”

3. The meaning behind his stage moniker

The Weeknd performing – Wikipedia

The Weeknd adopted his stage moniker in tribute to when he dropped out of high school at 17 years old, and “left one weekend and never came home”.

 “I was about 17 dropped out of high school and convinced Lamar to do the same, lol,” he said, referring to a member of his XO crew. “We grabbed our mattresses from our parents, threw it in our friends’ sh*** van and left one weekend and never came back home.”

He dropped the “e” because of copyright issues. “I took out the ‘e’ because there was already a Canadian band named the weekend (copyright issues).”

4. The Weeknd recorded music under different names

The Weeknd – Flickr

In August 2009, Tesfaye began anonymously releasing music on YouTube under the username “xoxxxoooxo”.

Early collaborator Nixxon revealed that at some point in the mid-2000s, he and Abel worked together under the less-than-ideal name Bulleez N Nerdz. The name was inspired by the fact that they were both bullies but looked like nerds.

In addition, Abel released music under two aliases; the Noise and Kin Kane.

5. The Weeknd is Trilingual

The Weeknd – The WikiFeed

The Weeknd was born to Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu, meaning his ethnicity is Ethiopian. His native language is Amharic, which he learned through his grandmother even before he learnt to speak English.

Abel grew up in the Canadian province of Ontario. Though the province’s official language is English, there are multiple French-speaking cities and communities. He later became fluent in French by attending a French-immersion school, where you would get in trouble for speaking English.

He is also fluent in English, and this is evident in all his interviews and performances that are primarily done in English.

6. The weeknd’s iconic dreads

The Weeknd, 2015 – Wikipedia

The Weeknd’s 2015 hairstyle was one of his most recognizable traits. His “palm tree” shaped dreads were dyed into a brown color, which combined with his naturally black roots formed an ombre effect. The hairstyle was inspired by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

He told Rolling Stone in 2015 that he wanted to keep the hairstyle specifically because it made him unique. “I want to be remembered as iconic and different. So, I was like, ‘F*ck it — I’m gonna let my hair just be what it wants,’” he said of his locs. “I’ll probably cut it if it starts interfering with my sight. I can kind of see it right now. But if I cut it, I’d look like everyone else. And that’s just so boring to me.”

He finally did lop off his dreads in 2016, and was satisfied with the decision, siting “The vision wasn’t there anymore.

7. The Weeknd gave up “almost half” of one of his old albums to Drake

The Weeknd and Drake – Flickr

Drake initially introduced the lesser-known singer, The Weeknd, to his fanbase in 2010, when he posted two of the singer’s songs on his October’s Very Own blog.

The two later met in 2011, when he Weeknd was promoting his debut mixtape, House of Balloons. The Weeknd would go on to contribute to Drake’s sophomore album Take Care the same year. This earned Abel song credits on 5 of the album’s 17 songs.

 “I gave up almost half of my album. It’s hard,” Weeknd says. “I will always be thankful—if it wasn’t for the light he shined on me, who knows where I’d be. And everything happens for a reason. You never know what I would say if this success wasn’t in front of me now.”

8. The Weekend boycotted the Grammys

Grammy Statuettes – Flickr

The R&B superstar was thought to be a strong contender in the Big Four categories, including album of the year for his fourth LP After Hours, which spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, as well as record of the year and song of the year for his blockbuster hit “Blinding Lights,” which became Billboard‘s biggest Hot 100 song of all time.

However, on the morning of Nov. 24, 2020, when the 2021 Grammy Award nominations were revealed, The Weeknd’s name was nowhere to be found despite the mammoth success of his album ‘After Hours’ and its hit singles, including the record-breaking ‘Blinding Lights’.

As a result, the singer took to social media to criticize the Recording Academy for the omission. He also declared he will boycott the awards show and will not submit any more music to the Grammys.

Interestingly enough, in 2022 ceremony he secured three Grammy nomination.

9. Did The Weeknd get plastic surgery

The Weeknd, 2021 – Instagram

In 2020 The Weeknd, showed up to both the American Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards with what appeared to be a bruised and bloodied face. This started the buzz of him altering his appearance.

Later in January 2021, the performer shared on his Instagram account a photo of himself looking as though he had undergone facial plastic surgery.

However, it was later confirmed that the singer hadn’t actually gone under the knife or sustained any serious facial injuries. Instead, he had been using prosthetics and makeup to tell the dark and twisted story embedded in his 2019 album After Hours.

10. The Weeknd’s music is really inspired by Ethiopia

The weeknd, The Hills – IMDb

The Weeknd’s singing has been described by many as unconventional because of his high-flying vocal style, a recognizable Ethiopian singing characteristic.

Hannah Giogis of Pitchfork notes that “his trademark vibrato, the characteristically pained whine that pervades much of Abel’s music, draws from a long Ethiopian musical legacy of tortured pining. Imbuing our voices with the shaky pain of loss—romantic or otherwise—is a hallmark of Ethiopian musical tradition.

‘The Hills’ was the first time you actually heard the Ethiopian language in my music.

11. He has supported pretty big names in the industry while on tour

David Hwang, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Apart from being so talented himself, the Weekend has also supported and worked in collaboration with some big names in the industry. When artists are on tour especially, the iconic singer has a knack for showing up and giving the best support he can to fellow artists. A good example is when he supported Justin Timberlake while on his 20/20 Experience World Tour and Drake too in 2014.

12. The Weeknd’s fan base contains also big artists

Krists Luhaers, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The beauty of the weekend’s talents is that his fan base is huge. This contains also big names in the music industry who are talented, iconic, and popular in their way. Among the popular artists who never shy away from appreciating The Weekend are the world’s wealthiest DJ, Calvin Harris, and the legendary Kendrick Lamar. They are confirmed fans of the weekend as seen in the way they attend his tours and even sing along to most of his music.

13. People love to cover his songs

RTotzke, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Maybe it’s because of how popular they are, but when all is said and done, many people, especially his fans, love to cover the songs he has released. Whether it’s popular or not; though again none of his songs go unrecognized. Many of the covers people have done of his songs are truly amazing and most usually get recognition, including by The Weekend himself. One such example is the cover that went viral by Eliza Doolittle. She performed a super chilled version of his album track ‘The Morning’ and fans couldn’t get enough of it.

14. He’s a perfect collaborator

The Come Up Show, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When it comes to collaborating with other artists, even when his part is a minor one, The Weekend never ceases to blow the minds of his fans. Ariana Grande realized this and decided to grab an opportunity with The Weekend when she featured him in her single, ‘Love Me Harder.’ These two phenomenal artists went on ahead to perform this unforgettable tune on some of the biggest TV shows in the U.S.A., including Saturday Night Live.

15. He is originally from Ethiopia

Photo by Sammy Wong on Unsplash

This explains why he adopts a lot of Ethiopian music into his own. The Weekend’s parents originally immigrated to Canada from Ethiopia in the 80s, when the country was under civil clashes due to political wrangles. He therefore has his roots in Africa and it is amazing to see how he readily embraces that side of him in his artistic works.

16. His debut album is called ‘Trilogy’

Nicolas Padovani, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Weekend also has a debut album known as ‘Trilogy’ which managed to take the world by storm. This isn’t really a surprise since it is The Weekend we are talking about. But that aside, after he compiled three very incredible mixtapes, The Weekend decided to compile the best of them alongside some fresh tunes and voila! released his debut masterpiece that never seems to go unrecognized.

17. Spotify  also appreciates his music

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

The Weekend’s song, ‘Blinding Lights,’ became Spotify’s top song of the year 2020 which wasn’t a small feat. He, among Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa among others were named the year’s biggest chart toppers on the 2020 Spotify-wrapped list. To date, this song has a particularly high rating and traffic which says a lot more about the guy’s talent and gift as a musical artist.

18. He started as a sales guy

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

Before blowing up, The Weeknd started off by working as an American Apparel sales associate in Toronto. Talk about humble beginnings and proceeding to make it big thanks to the resilience and hard work. His story is one of inspiration and proof that one can be anything one sets their mind to.

19. The Weeknd never graduated from high school

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

When he was 17 years old, The Weeknd dropped out of high school and convinced his close friend, La Mar Taylor to join him. He is the perfect illustration of how one may not always need school papers and certificates to make it big in life. Despite being a dropout, he is now one of the richest and popular musician as far as pop music is concerned.

20. He has always been inspired by Michael Jackson

Constru-centro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Weeknd has never shied away from mentioning and appreciating the fact that Michael Jackson has always been a big inspiration for him. For instance, his music video for the song, “I Feel It Coming,” was inspired by Michael Jackson’s music video for the song, “Billy Jean.” He has admitted on many occasions that the original King of Pop is his biggest inspiration.