Abel Tesfaye, popularly known as The Weekend, is an Ethiopian Artist born in Canada on February 16, 1990, to Ethiopian immigrants – Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu. The singer, songwriter, and actor, known for his versatility and dark lyricism was officially declared the Most Popular Artist in the World in March 2023. He set two new Guinness World Records titles:
- -Most Monthly listeners on Spotify – (111,927,744 monthly listeners as of March 22, 2023)
- -First Artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify
The singer currently has over 29 million more monthly listeners on Spotify than the second-placed, Miley Cyrus (82.8 million). He is well ahead of other superstars including Shakira (81.9 million), Ariana Grande (82 million), Taylor Swift (80.6 million), Rihanna (77.9 million), and Ed Sheeran (77.4 million).
His five popular songs on Spotify, with their number of streams as of March 22, 2023, are:
- -Blinding Lights – 3,478,336,306
- -Starboy – 2,295,638,766 streams
- -Die For You – 1,349,472,251 streams
- -Creepin (with 21 Savage) – 487,499,602 streams
- -Die For You (remix with Ariana Grande) – 166, 130, 579 streams
Blinding Lights, a hit single from his 2020 studio album, After Hours, is currently the most streamed track on Spotify, with over 3.4 billion streams as of March 22, 2023, ousting Ed Sheraan’s Shape of You, which held the top spot since September 2017.
The release of the remix of Die For You, featuring Ariana Grande, contributed to his surging streaming figures. The track peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the seventh number-one hit for both The Weekend and Ariana Grande respectively.
The Weekend and Ariana Grande have collaborated four times – “Love Me” (2014), “Off the Table” (2020), the remix of “Save Your Tears” (2021), and the remix of “Die For You” (2023).
In the 2017 edition of the Guinness World Records, The Weekend’s second studio album, Beauty Behind the Madness, which was released in August 2015, became the most streamed album on Spotify in one year, current (unique listeners). The album also amassed 60 million listeners on Spotify between December 1, 2014, and December 1, 2015. One of the lead singles in the album Can’t Feel My Face, had 448,334,867 streams alone by January 13, 2016.
He also earned the title most consecutive week in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 by a solo male artist. Beauty Behind the Madness, was his breakthrough album, with hit tracks that propelled him to global stardom.
The Weekend has five studio albums – Kiss Land (2013), Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), Starboy (2016), After Hours (2020), and Dawn FM (2022). He has four Grammy Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, 20 Billboard Music Awards, Six American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and 22 Juno Awards. He also received nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
The songwriter received the Allan Slaight Honor from Canada’s Walk of Fame for his contributions to music, film, literature, visual arts, sports, innovation, and philanthropy. On February 7, 2021, the Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, declared February 7 as “The Weekend’s Day” to commemorate Tesfaye’s Super Bowl halftime performance.
