The Weeknd:Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as The Weeknd (pronounced "the weekend"), is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer.[2]

In late 2010, Tesfaye anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under the name "The Weeknd". He released three nine-track mixtapes throughout 2011: House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, which were critically acclaimed.[3] In 2012, he released a compilation album Trilogy, thirty tracks consisting of the remastered mixtapes and three additional songs. It was released under Republic Records and his own label XO.

In 2013, he released his debut studio album Kiss Land, which was supported by the singles "Kiss Land" and "Live For". His second album, Beauty Behind the Madness, which became his first number one album on the US Billboard 200, included the number-three single "Earned It" and produced the number-one singles "The Hills" and "Can't Feel My Face". The songs have simultaneously held the top three spots on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, making him the first artist in history to achieve this.[4] The Weeknd has won two Grammy Awards and nine Juno Awards.[5] In September 2016, the release of the third album Starboy was announced along with the release of the title track single "Starboy", which subsequently reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[6]

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born on 16 February 1990 in Toronto, Ontario and was raised in the neighbourhood of Scarborough, Ontario, a district in the city's east end.[7][8] He is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, who were Ethiopian immigrants to Canada in the late 1980s.[7][9][10][11]

During his youth, his mother would work several jobs in order to support the family, often taking odd jobs as a nurse and caterer. She would also attend night school to learn English.[11] His father later abandoned the family, prompting his maternal grandmother to take care of Abel. This allowed him to become fluent in Amharic in his early years, with this Semitic language acting as his first language. His grandmother would also take him to services at an Ethiopian Orthodox church.[11][12] About his father, The Weeknd stated "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. 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."[11]

Describing his teenage years as "KIDS without the AIDS", The Weeknd first began smoking marijuana once he turned 11, and later moved on to harder drugs, often shoplifting from local supermarkets with a high school friend to supplement his use of ecstasy, oxycodone, xanax, cocaine, psilocybin, and ketamine.[7][13]

He attended both the West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in the district, however, he did not graduate from either of these high schools.[14][15] He subsequently chose to drop out from the latter in 2007, and also left home, residing at 65 Spencer Avenue in neighbouring Parkdale. He has also credited his stage name as being inspired by his high school dropout status "after [he] left one weekend and never came home", although, producer Jeremy Rose claims the name was his own idea.[16] The spelling was modified in order to avoid trademark issues with the Canadian band The Weekend.[7][12]