The Weeknd, the Canadian pop star famous for hit songs like “Blinding Lights,” has decided to use his birth name, Abel Tesfaye, on his social media accounts.
In April, he reached out to his fans on Twitter, asking for their opinion on whether he should make the switch.
“ABEL formally known as The Weeknd?” he asked his fans in a tweet that received over one hundred thousand likes.
The name change comes after the award winning artist revealed he wanted to “kill The Weeknd” to W Magazine.
“I’m going through a cathartic path right now” he said. “It’s getting to a place and time where I’m getting ready to close The Weeknd chapter.”
The artist has previously said his name came about after he dropped out of school and took his mattress “leaving one weekend and never coming home”, the Daily Mail reported.
But he told W Magazine: “As the Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.” He added that his next album would probably be his “last hurrah” under that name.
Abel Tesfaye, born in Toronto to Ethiopian immigrants, gained fame by sharing his initial songs on YouTube in 2010. His unique brand of dark, explicit R&B explored themes of drug use, casual sex, and isolation.
His breakthrough came when Canadian rapper Drake featured his early demos on his personal blog, leading to the creation of a nine-song mixtape called “House of Balloons,” which Tesfaye released as a free download.
Throughout his music career, he has achieved tremendous success, winning four Grammy Awards, earning over 45 platinum singles and albums, and setting numerous music records.
In March 2023, he was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the most popular artist globally, based on his remarkable number of monthly listeners on Spotify.
By March 2023, at the age of 33, Tesfaye boasted 111.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, becoming the first artist ever to reach the milestone of 100 million monthly listeners on the streaming platform.
“The Weeknd currently has almost 30 million more monthly listeners than second-placed Miley Cyrus (82.4 million)” they wrote in a press release.