The Weeknd Profile, Age, Height, Family, Affairs, Wiki, Biography & More

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, romance, and melancholia, and is often inspired by personal experiences. He has received numerous accolades, including four Grammy Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 17 Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Born and raised in Toronto, Tesfaye began his career in 2009 by anonymously releasing music on YouTube. Two years later, he co-founded the XO record label and released the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, which gained recognition for his style of contemporary and alternative R&B and the mystique surrounding his identity.

In 2012, he signed with Republic Records and rereleased the mixtapes in the compilation album Trilogy. He explored dark wave in his debut studio album Kiss Land (2013), which debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. After its release, Tesfaye began contributing to film soundtracks, with his acclaimed single “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Gray (2015) winning the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, while also being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born on February 16, 1990, in Toronto, Ontario. He is the only child of Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu, who separated shortly after his birth.

Tesfaye is known to be very enigmatic, and prefers to keep his personal life out of the public eye. In the beginning of his career, he refrained from participating in interviews and instead chose to communicate via Twitter, which he attributed to shyness and insecurities. To this day, he is still adamant about not participating in interviews, only agreeing to be interviewed in rare situations.

From April 2015 to August 2019, Tesfaye was in an on-again, off-again relationship with American model Bella Hadid. She starred in the music video for his single “In the Night” in December 2015. He briefly dated American singer-actress Selena Gomez from January to October 2017. Both of the relationships received widespread media attention, and were the topic of tabloid speculation.

Tesfaye’s hairstyle, which has been described as one of his most recognizable traits, has been claimed to be partly inspired by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. He began growing it out in 2011 and remarked at how easy it was to maintain with “a hard shampoo every once in a while”. He cut his hair in 2016, prior to the release of Starboy. On social media, Tesfaye typically suffixed his first name with “xo”, which is often used as an emoticon for hugs and kisses. According to The Guardian’s Hermione Hoby, this was his intention, though others believe it was a reference to his recreational use of ecstasy and oxycodone. He later altered the handles on his social media to reflect his stage name in preparation for the release of Starboy.

In January 2015, Tesfaye was arrested for allegedly punching a police officer in Las Vegas after being taken into an elevator to break up a fight. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to complete fifty hours of community service.

As of August 2021, Tesfaye resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles. In 2017, he purchased a home in Hidden Hills, California for $18.5 million, which he sold to Madonna in 2021 for $19.3 million. Tesfaye previously lived in penthouses in Westwood, Los Angeles and New York City.

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