Ever since The Weeknd (real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye), broke onto the music scene with his 2011 mixtape House of Balloons, he has become a bonafide star in his own right. In November 2020, Billboard reported that he would be headlining the 2021 Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show on Feb. 7, 2021, which is no small feat. Not only does the super high-profile event require an equally high-profile name to headline it, but when making the all-important decision, the NFL league considers “popularity, music genre and the artists’ overall performance value” (per Sportscasting), so it’s impressive to see that The Weeknd possesses the trifecta the league is looking for!
According to a Billboard interview from January 2021, The Weeknd has “always had the Super Bowl on his bucket list,” and judging by his plans for the event, it is going to be a performance to remember. The “Can’t Feel My Face” singer is focused on giving fans at home “a cinematic experience” and even put up $7 million of his own money to ensure the show would “be what he envisioned.” Talk about commitment!
So, in honor of what’s sure to be a memorable show, here’s a quick look at the man behind the public persona. Let’s start with something simple like his name — why is he called “The Weeknd,” anyway? Keep reading to find out, and be prepared to impress your friends and family with the trivia when you watch the halftime show.
The Weeknd was inspired by his status as a high school dropout
The Weeknd has never been one for video interviews, so it is somewhat fitting that he once took fans’ questions on a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) in 2013. Unsurprisingly, one person asked the singer about the origins of his pseudonym. The Weeknd explained that his stage name was inspired by the fact he had left home as a teenager. “I left home when I was about 17 dropped out of high school … We grabbed our mattresses from our parents threw it in our friends sh**ty van and left one weekend and never came back home,” The Weeknd wrote. “I hated my name at the time though so I tried it as a stage name. It sounded cool. I took out the “e” because there was already a Canadian band named the weekend (copyright issues),” he added.
That said, perhaps The Weeknd cannot take sole credit for the catchy moniker. Jeremy Rose, a producer who had originally worked on House of Balloons before his name was scrubbed from the record, told Vice in 2012 that he had been the one to come up with the name. “We started as a group; it was he and I, and we called ourselves ‘The Weekend,'” Rose explained. “I came up with that name, by the way.” After the pair had a falling out, The Weeknd went on to achieve mega success in the industry. The rest, as we know, is history.
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