Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, born on February 16, 1990, is better known by his stage name, the Weeknd. He is a Canadian singer-songwriter and record producer hailing from Scarborough, Ontario. Of Ethiopian descent, the Weeknd blends elements of R&B, rock, and hip hop in his music. On March 6, 2011, rapper Drake mentioned the Weeknd on Twitter, highlighting him as a new artist to pique public interest.
1: “Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do.”
2: “The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.”
3: “The Joker is my favorite villain of all time: You don’t know his past; you just know what his plans are.”
4: “I’m the most boring person to talk to.”
5: “I want to be remembered as iconic and different.”
6: “I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?”
7: “I’m all about evolution. I’m the first person to judge myself.”
8: “For me, bomber jackets are smart, but they are also street and have a lot of attitude.”
9: “‘Trilogy’ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.”
10: “In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.”
11: “My purpose is to make exciting music, and I feel like I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life, so there’s no pressure.”
12: “The Joker that Christopher Nolan created in ‘The Dark Knight’ had the scar across his mouth, and the first time you heard his explanation for it, he makes you believe that’s how he got it. But then you get into the film, and every time he talks about his scar, it’s a totally different story.”
13: “I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.”
14: “We’re all insecure, aren’t we? I’m not walking around like I’m macho man or anything.”
15: “The whole ‘enigmatic artist’ thing, I just ran with it.”
16: “When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.”
17: “For my generation, the bomber jacket is like a replacement for the suit jacket. It’s a piece that men wear every day, and it’s something that I would wear for any occasion, whether it’s on the street or going to an awards ceremony.”
18: “The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.”
19: “I was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole ‘enigmatic artist’ thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me.”
20: “I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.”