Artist on The Rise: The Weeknd

This week’s on the rise artist is R&B Singer/Song-Writer and Producer, The Weeknd!Abel Tesfaye, known by his stage name “The Weeknd”, is a Canadian PB R&B, recording artist and record producer born February 16, 1990. This 24-year-old talented singer began his musical career in late 2010, as he anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under his stage name “The Weeknd”.

 Throughout 2011 three nine-track mixtapes named: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, which were critically acclaimed. In 2012 he released a compilation album “Trilogy” with, the mixtapes were remastered and bundled with three new songs for Trilogy consisting of remastered versions o

f the mixtape material and three additional songs. It was released under Republic Records and his own label XO. The set debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. The following April, Tesfaye won Juno Awards in the categories of Breakthrough Artist of the Year and R&B/Soul Recording of the Year. Trilogy was certified platinum by the RIAA the next month. Kiss Land, much darker in tone than its title implied, followed in September 2013, which was supported by the singles “Kiss Land“, and “Live For”. 

Throughout his short and extremely successful years as a well-known artist The Weeknd has received praise from several music publications, including Pitchfork, MTV, BET, Rolling Stone, and etc.

The Weeknd has the voice quite distinct and close to that of our beloved deceased King of Pop Michael Jackson! Speaking from experience, every new fan he gets will unintentionally mistake his music as Michael Jackson’s due to his incredible talent and perfect pitch. His devoted listeners have high expectations from this talented young man.