Biographic - Sunday September 20, 2015 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

The son of Ethiopian immigrants, Abel Tesfaye was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on February 16, 1990. He moved to Toronto in his late teens, where he teamed up with producer Jeremy Rose in a musical project they called The Weekend. When Abel and Rose parted ways, Abel released some tracks online under the name The Weekend. Early support from Abel's friend, rapper Drake, helped gain attention for the music and throughout 2011, The Weeknd released a trilogy of free mixtapes that had the music press buzzing and a growing army of fans clamoring for more. In 2012, The Weeknd performed a series of dates in major U.S. cities and played big festivals in the U.S. and Europe, following which he signed to Republic Records in a joint venture with his own XO imprint label. Released in late 2012, his compilation album "Trilogy" hit the top five of the album charts in both Canada and the U.S. the following year, "Kiss Land," his debut studio album, reached No. 2 on both charts. He toured with Justin Timberlake and Drake, and his profile was further raised by the soundtrack of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" to which he contributed "Devil May Cry" and guested on Sia's "Elastic Heart." he hit the top 10 when he duetted with Ariana Grande on the single "Love Me Harder" before "Earned It" from the soundtrack of "Fifty Shades of Grey," reached No. 3 on the U.S. singles chart. 2015 has seen The Weeknd headline a number of major U.S. festivals and create chart history by occupying the top three spots on the Billboard Hot R&B songs chart with "Can't Feel My Face" "The Hills" and "Earned It" all three tracks creating buzz ahead of the release of his "Beauty Behind The Madness" studio album.

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