The Weeknd Featuring Schoolboy Q and Jhene Aiko to Play the Hollywood Bowl

Fred Hernandez

Known as the Weeknd, Abel Tesfaye is an alternative R&B singer/producer who grew up in Canada with an absentee father and a mother that worked constantly to make ends meet. Raised by his Ethiopian grandmother until the age of 5, Tesfaye learned Amharic (a Semitic dialect spoken in Ethiopia) as his first language. His stage name originated from a time when he dropped out of school at 17 and left home in a beat-up van, and the loss, neglect and turmoil he suffered in his formative years would later inform his brooding and gloomy lyrics as a recording artist.

The beginning of the Weeknd can traced to a fateful day in Toronto when Tesfaye met Nova Scotian Producer Jeremy Rose. As Rose played the beat for “What You Need,” Tesfaye freestyled over the song, and Rose pitched him the idea of a dark R&B project. “What You Need,” “Loft Music,” “The Morning” and the first half of “The Party & the After Party” were all brainchilds of Rose’s, and, after a few misunderstandings about song credits, the duo split and the Weeknd was born.

The Weeknd would eventually take YouTube by storm by posting “What You Need,” “Loft Music,” and “The Morning” under the mysterious pseudonym. In 2011, Tesfaye released the nine-track mixtape House of Balloons for free. Steeped in sultriness and apathy, the release won critical acclaim worldwide, leading to the Weeknd’s first performance at the Mod Club in Toronto. Blogs were abuzz about this wunderkind whose vocals were reminiscent of a seductive and hypersexualized Michael Jackson. Another mixtape Thursday was released in 2011, again for free, followed by a third freebie in December 2011 titled Echoes of Silence. While there was no initial financial gain, Tesfaye saw the value in securing an ever-growing fan base that would be hungry for more of his dulcet tones.

Tesfaye soon assembled a band for a U.S. tour (which sold out in less than five minutes), and joined the European festival circuit with great success, as his Balloons trilogy had reportedly been downloaded a staggering 8 million times. In 2012, Tesfaye signed with Republic Records in a joint venture with his own XO imprint, and his free releases were remastered with three extra songs. The revamped compilation Trilogy peaked at number five on the Canadian album charts and number four on the Billboard 200.

Tesfaye’s most recent effort Kiss Land took the number-two spot on the Billboard 200, just 2,000 copies short of Keith Urban’s Fuse. Like Urban, the Weeknd is now a staple of hipster R&B fandom with the likes of Frank Ocean, How to Dress Well and Miguel. What separates the Weeknd from other alternative R&B acts is his emphasis on sex, drugs and more sex. The artist has maintained a fixed identity that his fans have come to love, and only time will tell if his Dionysian personality and crisp falsetto can continue to seduce listeners. Whatever the outcome, the Weeknd is one of the more exciting and talented singers in the music game right now. [I would bounce this back to the writer. Sex has been the go-to topic for R&B lyrics for the last 50 years. The sexual focus and “Dionysian personality and crisp falsetto” are the hallmarks of R&B singers like Marvin Gaye, El DeBarge, Prince, Babyface, Robin Thicke, the list goes on and on.]

The Weeknd’s King of the Fall Tour featuring Schoolboy Q and Jhene Aiko the will play the Hollywood Bowl on October 9. Tickets are on sale now.