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Photo: Brian Ziff / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
The Weeknd is the stage name of Abel Tesfaye, a singer, songwriter and producer from Toronto. He first appeared anonymously in 2011 with the mixtape House of Balloons, whose dark, atmospheric R&B helped define a new sound for the decade. He went fully mainstream with Beauty Behind the Madness in 2015 and its hit “Can’t Feel My Face,” then Starboy in 2016. After Hours in 2020 produced “Blinding Lights,” one of the most successful songs in Billboard Hot 100 history, and in 2021 he headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show. He continued the story with Dawn FM in 2022. Hurry Up Tomorrow, released in January 2025, completed that trilogy and arrived with a companion film. He has said it may be the last album under The Weeknd name.