The Weeknd (born February 16, 1990, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter best known for his explicit songs about sex and drugs, many of which are autobiographical, and for his soaring falsetto and its singular tremolo.Tesfaye’s mother and grandmother immigrated in the 1980s to Canada from Ethiopia, and his first language was Amharic. When he was in grade 11, he quit school and left home, devoting himself to unbridled partying. Tesfaye eventually landed a job at American Apparel and at the same time began writing songs about drug use, casual intimacy, and alienation. He crossed paths with musician and producer Jeremy Rose, and they started working together. Their collaboration yielded three atmospheric songs—“The Morning,” “Loft Music,” and “What You Need”—with lyrics that were partly sung and partly rapped. The songs, credited to The Weeknd, were uploaded as audio files to the video-sharing Web site YouTube in late 2010; their popularity grew exponentially after they were posted to the blog of Canadian rapper Drake.
The Weeknd grew up outside Toronto in a multicultural neighborhood filled with fellow East Africans, as well as people from India, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. “Ethiopian—Amharic—was the first language I learned to form sentences in because my grandma, who raised me with my mom, would not speak English,” he told Variety.
After switching schools several times, The Weeknd eventually dropped out of high school when he was 17, also persuading his best friend La Mar Taylor to join him.
Following his relationship with Bella Hadid, the Canadian moved on with singer Selena Gomez. Selena and The Weeknd split in October 2017 and later rekindled his relationship with Bella. They split shortly after.
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