The Weeknd (birth name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) is a singer, songwriter, and music producer from Canada. After finding early success releasing his first tracks on YouTube, The Weeknd rose to stardom with a little help from another Canadian rap star, Drake. When The Weeknd’s first album dropped in the summer of 2011, it swiftly won commercial and critical acclaim.
The Weeknd has won two Grammy Awards and is best known for the hit songs “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face”.
The Weeknd isn’t big into religion anymore but growing up in a suburb of Toronto he was raised as an Oriental Orthodox Christian. When he was younger, The Weeknd’s grandmother would take him to an Ethiopian Orthodox church to attend services.
Since those early days, The Weeknd seems to have moved away from religion and focuses his time on music. Sometimes the singer is seen wearing a necklace with a cross, which might suggest he still holds onto certain beliefs, or maybe just likes wearing it for fashion reasons.
The more conservative religious groups do not like his music, since most of his songs are about drugs and affairs. One of his more popular tweets on Twitter was him making a joke about religion:
"she said she don't believe in God but her shoes Christian " – @reBELLYus
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) May 7, 2015
In May 2016 The Weeknd cancelled an appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show when he learned that Donald Trump would also be a guest on that particular show. We’re guessing that the rapper isn’t a fan of The Donald himself, but it’s open to interpretation whether that also means The Weeknd dislikes Republicans. (3)
Judging from the lack of other political commentary on The Weeknd’s Twitter account, we think that it may just be an individual dislike for Trump and his politics. He seems to hold his political opinion and keep it to himself.
It’s pretty easy to spot The Weeknd due the fact that he has very unique hair (recently he has cut his hair). Abel started growing his hair in 2011. When asked why he let it grow out he said, “Fuck it – I’m gonna let my hair just be what it wants. I’ll probably cut it if it starts interfering with my sight…. But if I cut it, I’d look like everyone else. And that’s just so boring to me”.
Back in 200 when he uploaded the first of his YouTube songs, Tesfaye used the name “The Weekend” using the extra “e”. There are two stories about the genesis of the name: in one, the singer himself claims that he came up with it himself after he dropped out of school one weekend and never came back. “I hated my name at the time though so I tried it as a stage name. It sounded cool,” he said.
The second story comes from music producer Jeremy Rose who states that he was the one that thought up using “The Weekend” as a brand name.
Whatever the origin of the name, it’s a fact that te music star was forced to drop the last “e” in his name to avoid copyright infringment with another Canadian rock band called The Weekend. (4)
He was born on February 16, 1990. This makes him an Aquarius.
The Weeknd comes from Ethiopian decent. His parents moved from Ethiopia in the 1980s to Canada, settling in a suburb of Toronto named Scarborough. This is where The Weeknd was born and raised by his single mother and grandmother.
The Weeknd’s father left the family when his son was very young. “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,” The Weeknd once said about that time of his life. “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.”
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weeknd
4: Reddit AMA