My sophomore year of high school, I was casually listening to Pandora when I heard “High For This” for the first time. After a couple minutes of listening to this rhythmic, enticing, hedonistic track, I checked my phone to find an artist by the name of The Weeknd. Since that day, I’ve been obsessed with The Weeknd whose real name is Abel Tesfaye. Four years later, I still have his albums on repeat, and I even got XO (The Weeknd’s self-created record label) tattooed on me.
Some people only know The Weeknd as a pop artist who sings about sex, drugs, and partying—but I’ve experienced much more in his music. I hear a man who’s unapologetic about what he enjoys in life. He encourages the grind but knows not to take life too seriously. Abel is of Ethiopian dissent but grew up in Toronto, Canada. His father left the family early, and his mother worked multiple jobs, so his grandmother mostly took care of him. This lack of supervision could explain why he grew up to be the reckless high school dropout driven into homelessness for a time.
It’s hard to confine The Weeknd’s music into a single genre. Each album may be considered either R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, or something new entirely. He said himself, “The only thing R&B about my shit is the style of singing. […] My production and songwriting, and the environment around those vocals are not inspired by R&B at all.” A huge part of The Weeknd’s lure is his mystery and unpredictability. Though his sound continues to change, my love for The Weeknd’s music (although one of the most complex discographies in the industry) has remained the biggest constant in my life.
His songs are vulgar and brash, but in person, Abel is a reserved guy who used to get drunk to cope with the anxiety of performing. Through his music, though, he transforms into a confident, sexy performer called The Weeknd. During his first couple years as an artist, he took no photos, no interviews, and no media because he hated his look. XO gained a following without anyone knowing whether “The Weeknd” was a group or single person or what he looked like. To this day, Abel has little media engagement.
At the end of the day you can’t deny the music. That was my whole thing: I’m going to let the music speak for itself. I’ll show them that this is what I do.
-Abel Tesfaye in an interview with Complex
House of Balloons
In 2011, The Weeknd entered the music world with the release of three mixtapes for free download, recorded with producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo (Carlo Montagnese) in Toronto. House of Balloons, the first mixtape released in March, is the one I listen to the most and always return to.
High For This
The first song on the record, “High For This,” is the one that got me into XO. Listen and you will understand. It’s sultry, sexy, mysterious lyrics and beats will make you pause to listen to its entirety…
Loft Music
“Loft Music” best encapsulates Abel’s music/lifestyle of this time. In the two-minute intro, he describes partying and sex in a “2-floor loft in the middle of the city.” This loft is in the one-bedroom house Abel and his friends lived in in Toronto while working on the mixtapes. In an interview with Rolling Stones, Tesfaye described the house as “amazing. […] No parents, we can do what we want, stay up as late as we want—like, literally for days […] We were legends on that street.” This house at 65 Spencer Ave. is the “house of balloons” where the name comes from: “We’d throw these shitty parties and have girls over, and we’d try to make it celebratory, so we’d have balloons.” The second half of the song is a slow melody in which Abel coons freely, showcasing his impressive vocal range.
Thursday
Thursday is the second mixtape that was released the following month of August. It’s a conception piece of more Hip Hop/R&B perfection about a desired luxurious life. The most amazing part is that a lot of the lyrics are freestyle. “Gone,” for example, is one of the best songs on the mixtape and a complete freestyle. It’s special because although he doesn’t say anything particularly revolutionary, the listener is captivated by both the distinctive beat and his melodious serenading.
Gone
Echoes of Silence
Released in December, the third mixtape, Echoes of Silence, is a group of much slower, emotional songs that prove The Weeknd’s variability as an artist. It was made in Montreal where Abel “had a lot of darkness in that city.”
D.D.
This cover of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” showcases the power of The Weeknd: he’s a superb singer. Self-taught, Abel would try to mimic the greats like Michael which is how he got his sound. In the interview with Rolling Stones, The Weeknd explains that Jackson was an icon to his family not only for his musical skills also because of their similar east African roots. “D.D.” will make you think Abel is the reincarnation of Michael.
Montreal
“Montreal” is my current favorite because of its bilingual lyrics. Abel grew up in Canada and attended French-immersion elementary school, so he speaks French and utilizes it in this song, sampling France Gall’s “Laisse Tomber Les Filles.” It’s a somber song about a missed relationship opportunity. The Weeknd admits to sadness, “cause ain’t nobody feel the way that I feel when I’m alone,” but quickly recounts it with “baby, I’m a pro at letting go. I love it when they come and go” and sings « je ne pleurerai pas » (translated as “I will not cry anymore”). This is one of his specialties: singing about emotional feelings without letting the sadness win.
Trilogy
When The Weeknd signed with Republic Records in a joint venture with his own imprint label XO, these three mixtapes were remastered and compiled into Trilogy. Trilogy was released in November of 2012 and included three new songs. it charted at #5 in Canada and #4 in the United States and was followed by a tour. Only Trilogy, not the original mixtapes, can be found on music streaming programs.
Kiss Land
The Weeknd’s first studio album, Kiss Land, was released in September 2013 and debuted at #2 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Though this album is my least favorite to listen to, it’s likely the most interesting to study. Having never left Toronto before his success with Trilogy, Abel’s newfound fame allowed him to travel to Japan where he wrote the album. For Abel, Kiss Land “symbolizes everything that I’d never experienced in the past 21 years of my life.” For this reason, he describes it as the second chapter. The album draws influence from the tour life, Asian culture, and horror filmmakers:
That’s what Kiss Land is to me, an environment that’s just honest fear. I don’t know who I am right now and I’m doing all these outlandish things in these settings that I’m not familiar with. To me, it’s the most terrifying thing ever. So when you hear the screams in the record and you hear all these horror references and you feel scared, listen to the music because I want you to feel what I’m feeling. Kiss Land is like a horror movie.
The Weeknd in an interview with Complex
Belong To The World
“Belong To The World” is an intense, villain-esque ode about falling in love with the wrong person: “I’m not a fool, I just love that you’re dead inside. I’m not a fool, I’m just lifeless too.” I believe this song is hypocritical in a great way. It’s like this player got a taste of his own medicine. His lyrics “I want to embrace you, domesticate you, but you belong to the world” make me wonder if he’s singing about himself since no one has ever been able to domesticate him.
Beauty Behind the Madness
Beauty Behind The Madness, the second studio album and third chapter, is the one that brought him to the mainstream music limelight in 2015. It debuted at #1 in the United States and United Kingdom among other countries. I believe the album was heavily influenced by both his getting acquainted with stardom and his long-term relationship with supermodel Bella Hadid.
Angel
“Angel” is a beautiful R&B song about seeing the best in a lover. It’s likely not a coincidence that the subject of the lyrics, Hadid, is a Victoria’s Secret Angel. In this lovely song, Abel proves he’s more than the heartless partier portrayed in Trilogy: “I know time will tell if we’re meant for this…. and if we’re not, I hope you find somebody to love.” This song shows the personal growth Abel has made into a mature lover who wishes the best for his girl—even if that’s not him.
STARBOY
Starboy is The Weeknd’s third studio album released in November 2016, which debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and won a 2018 Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album. It’s inspired by Abel’s newly acquired superstar status while remaining a player, or as he calls it, “starboy.” This album, Chapter 4, has grandiose 80’s pop vibes: bright neon lights, a collab with Daft Punk, and an album name inspired by David Bowie. This album disappointed long-term XO fans because it sounds very different from Trilogy but it attracted new pop music fans. Starboy exemplifies The Weeknd’s specialty in producing concept albums and his ability to cross genres.
Sidewalks
In this song, The Weeknd perfectly describes his journey and boasts how he went from “homeless to Forbes List.” That line stood out to me, reminding that this superstar, one of the world’s best-selling artists grew from a homeless high school dropout. “Sidewalks” is a pop hit with Abel’s classic R&B falsetto and includes a verse from rapper Kendrick Lamar. The Weeknd reflects on his success and doesn’t try to be humble: “Too many people think they made me. Well if they really made me then replace me.”
MY DEAR MELANCHOLY,
My Dear Melancholy, is an EP that was surprise-released in March 2018 and debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In this project, Chapter 5, The Weeknd returns to his darker style of Echoes of Silence and Kiss Land, discussing his breakups with ex-girlfriends Selena Gomez and Bella Hadid. Tesfaye released the EP as a therapeutic way to close a chapter.
Call Out My Name
This powerful, emotional song is a plea to a lover on the brink of leaving. The music video is especially moving: in it, The Weeknd thrusts around from heartache while singing “I want you to stay even though you don’t want me. Girl why can’t you wait until I fall out of love?” Abel admits, “I said I didn’t feel nothing baby, but I lied—” proving he’s no longer the timid, numb teenager he started as.
Privilege
“Privilege” is my favorite on this EP because it sounds like “the old Abel.” He’s sad in the song, but knows that it’ll be okay after partying gets him through the funk: “I’ve got two red pills to take the blues away.” As the last song in his latest release, I appreciate the full circle.
In an interview with Time Magazine, The Weeknd revealed he had an entire album completed before My Dear Melancholy that “wasn’t melancholy at all because it was a different time in my life […] It was very upbeat—it was beautiful.” Following his breakup with Selena Gomez, though, he scrapped the album because “I don’t want to perform something that I don’t feel.” This is one of the reasons The Weeknd is so respected: to him, it’s not about the fame or money or stats. He produces music because he loves to—it’s his hobby and therapy. Even after all these years and becoming a global celebrity, it’s still just about the music for him.
The Weeknd is particularly popular with millennials. He explained why to Time Magazine: “The definition of the love we feel, or what kids and 20- and 18-year-olds are going through,” he says. “That music is special, and I feel like it’s what people need.” XO fans need the next piece, so we sit here waiting for it and have an inkling Chapter 6 is coming soon. Whatever the album is like, I’m sure it will be much different from his previous works while remaining The same Weeknd that first caught my attention. For now, I just replay House of Balloons and wait for my tattoo to heal.
Penny for my thoughts? 