After suggesting that he was considering retiring The Weeknd stage name and persona last year, Abel Tesfaye has suggested that he’s reconsidering his plans.
During a recent show in Stockholm, Sweden—where he is playing three sold-out shows—Tesfaye indicated that the Weeknd isn’t going away anytime soon. “I’ll never disappear,” he told the audience, as seen in a video shared by a fan. “I tested retirement a little bit, and I don’t like the way it feels. I said, Imma be here forever with you, baby. I’ll never disappear!”
In an interview with W Magazine in 2023, Tesfaye said that he doesn’t want to retire from music, but he has considered retiring the Weeknd stage name. “It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter,” he explained. “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.”
He reiterated those plans when he released his latest studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, which he teased by telling fans, ‘the end is near.’ In an interview with Variety last year, he was asked what he meant about “closing this chapter,” and he replied, “I would say my existence as the Weeknd.”
“It’s a headspace I’ve gotta get into that I just don’t have any more desire for,” he explained. “I feel like it comes with so much… You have a persona, but then you have the competition of it all. It becomes this rat race: more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more No. 1s. It never ends until you end it. … When is the right time to leave, if not at your peak? Once you understand who I am too much, then it’s time to pivot.”
He stressed, however, that whatever happens, he’ll never stop making music. “I don’t think I can stop doing that,” he continued. “But everything needs to feel like a challenge. And for me right now, the Weeknd, whatever that is, it’s been mastered. No one’s gonna do the Weeknd better than me, and I’m not gonna do it better than what it is right now.”
