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Where Was The Weeknd Born?
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born in Scarborough, Ontario on
February 26th, 1990. -
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. At that age he also moved out to go live with three other of his friends in a one bedroom house at 65 Spencer Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. -
Childhood
Abel 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
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" since "The Weekend" was already taken. 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. -
Mixtapes
On August 18th, 2011, Abel released his second mixtape called "Thursday" which also consists of 9 songs that includes 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 5:30A.M to 12PM. -
Mixtapes
On December 21,2011, Abel released mixtape number 3 called "Echoes of Silence" that consists of 9 songs as well. -
Tour Life
"The Fall Tour" was The Weeknd's first tour. With only few dates and cities, the setlist were 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 his first 3 mixtapes plus 3 new songs. Each 10 song mixtape has it's own CD in the case. 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. -
Tour Life
"King Of The Fall Tour" was The Weeknd's 2nd tour, also a very short tour it started on September 19th, 2013 and ended on October 10th, 2013. -
Tour Life
"Kissland Tour" was The Weeknd's third tour. It went from September 6th to November 25th, 2014 -
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". -
Tour Life
"Beauty Behind The Madness Tour" was The Weeknd's 4th tour which was also a short tour that went from November 3rd, 2015 to December 19th, 2015. -
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 Changes
Since 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".
