The Weeknd

The Weeknd, born Abel Tesfaye in Toronto, emerged from deliberate anonymity in 2010 by uploading three mixtapes that redefined R&B's emotional palette. His 2015 breakthrough Beauty Behind the Madness spawned the diamond-certified "Can't Feel My Face", while 2016's Starboy solidified his arena status. The 2020 album After Hours, featuring the record-breaking "Blinding Lights", became a global phenomenon, with the single spending over 90 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

His music grafts late-night hedonism onto post-Prince falsetto, threading melancholy through synth-pop architecture that recalls both 1980s maximalism and contemporary trap production. Lyrically, he constructs narratives of excess and regret that mirror millennial detachment whilst maintaining radio viability. With over 75 million records sold and multiple Grammy Awards, Tesfaye has become a singular figure in pop's streaming era, transforming introspective vulnerability into stadium-sized spectacle. His Ethiopian heritage occasionally surfaces through musical references, though his primary cultural work remains excavating darkness from mainstream pop's glossy surfaces.