Ziggy and Scotty discuss the results of the first round at the Masters. Charles Davis previews Week 10 in the NFL (50:00). Adam Stanley recaps Round 1 at Augusta National (1:28:56). The Weeknd's song inspired by Selena Gomez may not be happening at all; Here's Why The Weeknd drops new song 'Heartless' and it might have a HUGE Bella Hadid connection; Listen NOW. About The Weeknd Nobody makes feeling bad sound as good as The Weeknd. Even the singer’s sunniest tracks (“Can’t Feel My Face,” “Starboy”) feel anchored by darkness—the sense that pleasure is pain and beauty decays and you can’t have the night without the morning after. Official YouTube Channel for The Weeknd.
Is there anything we love more than the weekend? There is! That’s right, the three days of absolute bliss can take a back seat because even though we love them, we love the Weeknd more. The famous musician has managed to steal our hearts with his enthralling lyrics, his gorgeous smile and his appealing aesthetics so much so that no playlist will be complete without a song from this talented young man. His rise to fame started with the song that captured our attention; “What You Need”. This song was released on YouTube in December of 2010 and he has been a fan favorite ever since. There are a lot of other things to know and to love about the Weeknd apart from his exceptional vocal abilities.
If you didn’t think you could love him more than you do now, scroll through this list of the 20 facts about the Weeknd and I can guarantee that you will love him a lot more when you’re done.
1.His real name is not The Weeknd:
But I guess you already knew that. Our favorite artist was given the name is actually Abel Makonnen Tesfaye at birth by his parents. He allegedly hated his birth name and so he created his stage name The Weekend because it sounded cool. Upon becoming a star, he took the ‘e’ out of the word and made it The Weeknd in order to not run into copyright issues with a Canadian band that went by the same name. We love the personalization of the name, Abel!
2. He is an Aquarius:
That’s right! The Weeknd was born on February 16, 1990, making him an Aquarius along with other big names in the industry like Harry Styles, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran and Shakira. This means the ‘Can’t Feel my Face’ creator is 26 years old as of 2016. The noticeable thing here is he was born two days after Valentine’s day. Think that might count for exceptionally romantic lyrics? We do!
3. He is Canadian:
I think that goes without saying as some of the hottest stars alive are Canadian. Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Justin Beiber, Drake and Celine Dion are some of the biggest stars in the world that also come from Canada. The Weeknd was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
4. He never finished high school:
At the age of 17, he dropped out of high school and persuaded his best friend, La Mar Taylor, to join him. In an interview with The New York Times magazine, he says he moved into a one-bedroom with Taylor and another friend and got high at night on many occasions. MDMA, Xanax, cocaine, mushrooms, and ketamine were their drugs of choice. Some of the best stars we have today never finished high school because they dropped out to pursue their dreams full time. We are glad that it worked out well for The Weeknd. Some say that the best work by an artist is produced when they are high. Judging from his wild success, the myth might just be true.
5. His crew name has a deeper meaning than you thought:
The Weeknd’s crew name is XO and it has a deeper meaning than we think. His fans usually make the mistake of assuming that the name XO stands for hugs and kisses like we all know. However, we have confirmation that the letters actually represent the drugs Ecstasy and oxycontin. Considering the ubiquity of drugs in his songs, the latter seems likely. Regardless, he and all of his regular collaborators have the letters XO at the end of their Twitter handles, and his fans regularly quote their motto “XO ’til we overdose.”
6. He stayed in his hometown for a long time:
Until he was 21 years old, The Weeknd never left his city or his county. He was the definition of Canada born, Canada-bred and Canada-dead, well at least until he became a huge star and had to leave in order to become an even huger star in the United States and also see his scores of fans. He now resides in a rented house in Hollywood Hills.
7. He’s a big fan of Michael Jackson:
The Weeknd has expressed hopes to be as influential as Michael Jackson someday. His obsession also stems from being Ethiopian as Jackson is somewhat of a national icon in Ethiopia because of the song ‘We are the world’. A lot of other stars idolize the late Michael Jackson and we definitely see the appeal. He was an amazing singer/ songwriter before he passed on in June of 2009.
The Weeknd Might Not Downloading
8. He shies away from the spotlight:
Even though he is a famous musician, The Weeknd hates doing things that traditional musicians are required to do, like taking pictures. Yes, that is as surprising to us as it is to you considering his gorgeous face and stunning signature hair style. He apparently was very insecure and hated how he looked, and so he would either avoid taking pictures completely, or ask to be cropped out of any ones that were accidentally taken of him. Again, with his face, we have no idea what he was insecure about but isn’t it so sweet to realize he is just as human as we are?
9.His girlfriend is a famous model:
The Weeknd is in a long term relationship wth famous model Bella Hadid. After years spent finding himself and exploring with as many people as possible, the Weeknd decided to settle down with no other than the gorgeous model/ Olympic hopeful/ Gigi Hadid’s little sister/ Yolanda Foster’s daughter/ Kylie’s Jenner’s best friend Bella Hadid. They have been dating ever since she was 18 and it seems their relationship is flourishing like it does when two gorgeous people get together. They are such a sight to see when they go out together, all beautiful and well dressed and stuff.
10. He doesn’t know all his lyrics:
This may come as a shock to you, but the famous singer claims he does not know all of his own lyrics and relies on a “songwriter language” in the booth, which sometimes ends up with him singing gibberish for almost 45 minutes straight. He claims there are lyrics on his mixtape Thursday where he does not even know what he is saying. If you have ever found yourself listening to one of his songs and you can’t quite figure out the word, don’t beat yourself up about it; the Weeknd probably doesn’t know it either.
11. He is of Ethiopian descent:
The ‘Beauty Behind the Madness’ creator is of Ethiopian descent as his parents were Ethiopian immigrants that moved to Canada before they had him. The Weeknd, therefore, speaks his parents’ native language, Amharic, fluently. It was his first language until he learned to speak English. But did we ever doubt that he was African? I mean just look at his gorgeousness. Other gorgeous African stars include Chiwetel Ejiofor (from Nigeria), Lupita Nyong’o (from Kenya), Fela Kuti (from Nigeria) and Boris Kodjoe (from Ghana). His favorite thing about Ethiopia is the food! He once said and I quote “It’s the best, man. But it’s very fattening. I think I’m still burning off that fat, to be honest”. For an Ethiopian mother, if you have a chubby kid, it means you’re doing something good.”
12. He is friends with Wiz Khalifa:
The Weeknd has a friend in Wiz Khalifa. In 2013, Khalifa said in an interview that Tesfaye always inspires him. “He’s just very creative and forward thinking. Abel’s my man.” We can only imagine how many blunts they light together. We love it when famous people know each other and are friends above it all.
13. He has a pre-concert ritual:
Before concerts, Tesfaye gets his energy right by blasting Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall”. It is not so surprising because Micahel Jackson is his favorite musician of all times after all. It’s just like getting a pep talk from your role model before any serious game or event. It is nice to know that ThE Weeknd loves Michael Jackson as much as we love him.
14.He has other talents:
Not only is The Weeknd stepping out of his element by he’s also taking up a little modeling (but only for his close friend Kanye West of course). He makes an appearance in the rapper’s new Adidas collection in the September issue of GQ. About this gig, the Weeknd said “Kanye is such a great friend of mine as well when he asked me I couldn’t say no. It was the least I could do.” Could this get any better? We finally get to see him in full glory rocking some of the most trendy clothes that ever reached the earth.
The Weeknd Youtube Videos
15. He has yet to grant a formal interview:
That’s right, no one can claim that they have had the honor of formally interviewing this international musical sensation. The Weeknd loves to maintain a certain mystery about himself, so he doesn’t give his fans too much. The Weekend has declined to participate in interviews because he doesn’t like to “spoon feed” his audience. He would rather have them put a bit more effort into finding out things about him (like reading this list perhaps). Maybe one day he will accept an invitation for an interview (I’m sure he has thousands of those) and we will get to know more about our favorite singer.
16. He Is Featured in Lana Del Rey’s Music:
The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey have been friends for a long time and he admits that they have both inspired each other. He once said, “She is the girl in my music, and I am the guy in her music.” Whatever that means, the best we can do is to guess.
17. His Hair Has a Meaning:
Not that we ever doubted it, but his hair is another of his many obscure statements. The artist has said that his hair was inspired by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. He has been growing it out for over four years, and he only shampoos it occasionally. Well, since it works for him, we love it!
18.He lives in a haunted house:
The house that The Weeknd rents in the Hollywood Hills is reportedly haunted, and he has said, “I’ve had sleep paralysis. I hear voices sometimes. I heard the Hills are over Indian burial ground. But maybe it’s the wind. Let’s pray that it’s the wind because if anything happens to our precious stars, we will have a lot of questions to ask.
19. He and Drake are family:
Hold the DNA tests. When we say family, we are not being literal. But since it is reported that they are best friends, they might as well be related. In fact, so many songs like crew Love and such on Drake’s album were initially The Weeknd’s. He handed it over to Drake as a result of brotherly love and also because he was really high when Drake asked him. The Weeknd has said however that he would not be where he is today if not for Drake, and the latter has replied that they are brothers and “it’s just a Toronto thing”. Having our favorite stars be brothers is something we are not complaining about. Who knows? We might just get a Drake and The Weeknd album out of it.
20. He is a mysterious man:
For most of his career, The Weeknd kept himself far removed from the spotlight, declining all interview requests, and building up an air of mystery. Why the seclusion? “We live in an era when everything is so excessive, I think it’s refreshing for everybody to actually wonder who I am. ” Part of that stemmed from shyness, part from doubt. He noted in an interview “I thought I’d be a punk star—grow my hair out, acne on my face, super…skinny. I was looking at artists like Iggy Pop and the Ramones, or Afropunk. But you evolve and realize your potential. And then it’s like, ‘…yeah. Let’s go” His words, not ours.
Add Drake to the list of people who don’t sound happy that The Weeknd was shut out of this year’s Grammy nominations.
The rapper took to social media to complain about it.
“I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after,” Drake wrote on his Instagram stories. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can’t change their ways.”
Despite the commercial and critical success of The Weeknd’s “After Hours” album, and many industry observers considered his single, “Blinding Lights,” a frontrunner for song of the year, he did not receive Grammy nods.
Drake wrote that he, too, had thought that The Weeknd “was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way.”
“This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come,” Drake said.
After the nominations were announced on Tuesday, The Weeknd took to Twitter.
“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency,” he wrote.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy’s chair and interim president/CEO, said in a statement to CNN “We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated.”
“I was surprised and can empathize with what he’s feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone’s admiration,” the statement continued.
“We were thrilled when we found out he would be performing at the upcoming Super Bowl and we would have loved to have him also perform on the GRAMMY stage the weekend before. Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists.”
For years The Recording Academy has been the target of criticism that it is out of step with the preferences of consumers and has failed to recognize women and artists of color equally.
Nicki Minaj appeared to echo that latter point when she tweeted after the nominations “Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation. They gave it to the white man Bon Iver.”
Singer Teyana Taylor tweeted that there were no female nominees in the best R&B album category.
Justin Bieber, who racked up nominations in both the pop and country categories, complained that he should be vying for R&B awards.
“To the Grammys I am flattered to be acknowledged and appreciated for my artistry,” he wrote in a statement posted on his verified Instagram account. “I am very meticulous and intentional about my music. With that being said, I set out to make an R&B album. Changes was, and is, an R&B album. It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me.”