The Weeknd announces plans to retire ‘The Weeknd’ as his performance name, admitting he wants to ‘kill off’ his musical persona.
Abel Tesfaye, better known by his stage persona The Weeknd, recently admitted in an interview with W Magazine that he might retire his stage name after his next project. The interview, in which he sat down with his Idol co-star Lily-Rose Depp to talk about their upcoming HBO series airing on June 4.
“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” said Tesfaye. “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,” he added. “This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.”
The Canadian singer confirmed shortly after the release of his last album, Dawn FM, in January 2022 that fans were witnessing the birth of a new trilogy, which began with After Hours in 2020. Fans have speculated that Dawn FM‘s “Every Angel is Terrifying” track hints that his next album could be titled After Life.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd is pumping out new music in support of his new HBO series. He recently released the single “Double Fantasy” with Future and announced during a surprise Coachella set that more music would appear on a companion project called The Idol Vol. 1.
The artist also co-executive produced and made several appearances on producer Mike Dean’s latest album, 4:23, released last month. The Weeknd appears on the tracks “Artificial Intelligence,” “Defame Moi,” “More Coke!!,” and “Emotionless.”