In a recent chat with W Magazine, artist and actor Abel Tesfaye, who is widely known by his stage name The Weeknd, suggested that his career as a pop star may soon be ending.
In a new interview with W Magazine, musician and actor Abel Tesfaye, better known by his moniker The Weeknd, hinted that his time inhabiting that particular pop star persona may be coming to a close.
“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he told the mag. “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.”
He added: “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd. This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.”
Tesfaye mentioned his most recent album, Dawn FM released in 2022, as a part of a trilogy that started with After Hours in 2020, which has caused some of his fans to speculate that the persona of The Weeknd had perished with the release of After Hours and found himself in limbo in Dawn FM. With the forthcoming, likely final, Weeknd album, some of his followers are predicting whether he ends up in paradise or hell.
Besides this captivating explanation of The Weeknd, Tesfaye revealed details about The Idol, an HBO show featuring a young musician (Lily-Rose Depp) who falls under the influence of a dangerous producer-cult leader (Tesfaye). He co-created this widely discussed project with Sam Levinson from Euphoria, although the progress has been riddled with accounts of remakes, rewriting, delays, and even a disgruntled team member discussing the uncomfortable level of sexual scenes.
Rolling Stone mentioned a quote from a production crew member, who stated, “Levinson’s idea for The Idol was like the rape fantasy that any perverted man would want to see on screen—and the female character goes back for more because it improves her music.”
