After Hours
The Weeknd
For his fourth studio album, Canadian
singer The Weeknd picks back up much of
the sound of his early career, including the
fragile falsetto, smoky atmospheres and
whispered confessions. He has also beefed
it all up, however, with some seriously
impressive beatmaking.
FIVE FACTS:
- The Weeknd is the professional name of
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. - He was born on February 16, 1990 in
Toronto, Ontario, the only child of Ethiopian
immigrants Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye. - Tesfaye has said the name The
Weeknd was inspired by his status as a
high-school dropout. - He has cited Michael Jackson and Prince
among his musical inspirations. - The new album has been widely praised,
including by Rolling Stone’s Jon Dolan, who
said that it “hits the best balance yet of the
gloomy melodrama of The Weeknd’s early EPs
or his 2018 release My Dear Melancholy and
the pop slickness of his 2016 LP Starboy.”