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Birth of the Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (The Weeknd) was born in Scarborough, Ontario on February 26th, 1990. -
His School Life
Abel attended French immersion school until the 8th grade. He attended West Hill Collegiate Institute until he was kicked out then attended Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute until he dropped out at 17 to pursue music. -
Childhood
He was raised by his mother and grandmother with little to no memory of his father as he left when Abel was a young toddler. His first language was Amharic, and he also became fluent in English and French. -
The Start of his Career
When Abel met producer Jeremy Rose, they gave life to three songs he'd already written called "What You Need", "Loft Music", and "The Morning". Jeremy Rose had a dark R&B project in mind and when he heard Abel's voice, he knew he was the perfect fit. The project was called "The Weekend". In 2011 he created a YouTube channel called "The Weeknd" He uploaded those 3 songs and started to get recognition when rapper Drake shared those songs on a blog post. -
Mixtapes
On March 21, 2011, Abel released his first mixtape called "House Of Balloons" which consists of 9 songs. Which is also what his old house at 65 Spencer Avenue is known as. -
Other Mixtapes
On August 18th, 2011, Abel released his second mixtape called "Thursday" which also consists of 9 songs that include the track called "Thursday". This mixtape also plays part in relevance to his old house as now it's a night club called "House of Balloons" and it's only open on Thursdays from 5:30 A.M to 12 PM. -
Tour life of the Weeknd
"The Fall Tour" was The Weeknd's first tour. With only a few dates and cities, the setlist was all songs from his first three mixtapes. It took off on September 12th, 2012 and ended on November 3rd, 2012. -
Trilogy
On November 13th 2012, The Weeknd released a collaboration album called "Trilogy" which consisted of his first 3 mixtapes plus 3 new songs. Each 10 song mixtape has its own CD in the case. The trilogy is where he finally gave producer Jeremy Rose his credit for producing the first three songs when he took that project and created something much bigger and better. -
Kissland
On September 10th, 2013, The Weeknd released his first studio album called "Kiss Land". It consists of 10 songs including "Kiss Land" and "Live For" which features Drake. -
Beauty Behind The Madness
On August 28th, 2015, The Weeknd released his second studio album called "Beauty Behind The Madness" which is when people really started to notice him and his talent. This album consists of 14 songs including "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills". -
2016 Grammys
In the 2016 Grammy's, Abel won two Grammys for "Best Urban Contemporary Album" and "Best R&B Performance" just from his album Beauty Behind The Madness. "Earned It" from Beauty Behind The Madness also earned him an academy award. -
Tour Life
"Legend Of The Fall Tour" is The Weeknd's 5th tour as well as his first world tour. Starting on February 17, 2017, and it will end on June 9th, 2017 being his biggest tour yet. -
Recent Events
Since the Trilogy was released, Abel has changed his style quite a bit. He went from dark R&B to experimenting with pop during Beauty Behind The Madness and Starboy leaning towards a heavy pop side. He announces his "change" by cutting his hair and having himself killed in recent music videos (Starboy and False Alarm). Starboy is considered an album of "new beginnings".
