Abel Makkonen Tesfaye Royalties

The Weeknd is the alias of Abel Tesfaye, an enigma turned superstar whose accounts of emotionally and physically toxic indulgences are related through morose alternative R&B ballads and fluorescent electro-pop throwbacks alike. The singer and songwriter rose out of Toronto in 2011 with three mixtapes that seemed to have no designs on mainstream appeal. Within only a few years, however, Tesfaye had scored a variety of Top Ten pop hits that made his aching tenor known on a global level. These included a duet with Ariana Grande (“Love Me Harder”), a dramatic ballad from the soundtrack of Fifty Shades of Grey (the Grammy-winning “Earned It”), a disco-funk collaboration with Max Martin (“I Can’t Feel My Face”), and a sleek Daft Punk production (“Starboy”). Additionally, Tesfaye topped album charts at home and abroad and collected more Grammys with his second and third proper albums, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) and Starboy (2016). He entered the next decade with his third straight multi-platinum LP, After Hours (2020), the source of the global smash “Blinding Lights,” and followed with Dawn FM (2022), a conceptual refinement of his retro-modern aesthetic. Having delved into acting and screenwriting, Tesfaye then became a driving force behind the dramatic television series The Idol (2023). Its soundtrack added to his tally of Top Ten entries with “Double Fantasy” and “Popular.”