Abel Tesfaye officially kills off The Weeknd
The Weeknd has reverted to his birth name after more than a decade.
The Weeknd has killed his alter ego and changed his stage moniker to his birth name Abel Tesfaye.
The 'Double Fantasy' singer has performed and released music as The Weeknd for 14 years, and he has now bid farewell to the name that made him the biggest star on the planet.
Reverting back to Abel comes after the 33-year-old singer-and-actor - whose latest album was 2022's 'Dawn FM' - recently explained he's on "a cathartic path right now".
The 'Idol' star said he might switch between his alter ego and his birth, but ultimately thinks his next album will be the last under the name fans know him best as.
He told W magazine: "I'm going through a cathartic path right now.
"It's getting to a place and a time where I'm getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I'll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill the Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I'm definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.
"The album I'm working on now is probably my last hurrah as the Weeknd… This is something that I have to do. As the Weeknd, I've said everything I can say."
The 'Blinding Lights' hitmaker also admitted he never wanted to be famous when he started his career.
He said: “I’ve always been the antihero. In the beginning of my career, I didn’t show myself at all. I didn’t want to be famous. For the first two years, no one knew what I looked like.”
But when he finally appeared as The Weeknd, the star's desire to lead a low-key life hit an "obstacle" in the form of his distinctive big hair.
He said: “The hair became an obstacle for me!
"I went from ‘No one knows who I am’ to ‘Nobody has that hair except The Weeknd.’ I was always trying to hide it.
"When I finally decided to cut it, everybody said, ‘Don’t do it!’ That gave me more reasons to do it. I was so identified with that hair that I had to cut it. I didn’t want to be known for just this or just that.”
