The Weeknd

Tesfaye achieved commercial and critical success with his second pop-oriented album Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), which reached number one in the United States, featuring the singles «Can't Feel My Face» and «The Hills» that topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and won the Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album, while being nominated for Album of the Year. His third studio album with a trap infusion, Starboy (2016), had similar commercial success and included the number one single in the United States of the same name and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Urban Album. Tesfaye explored new wave and dream pop with his fourth studio album After Hours (2020), acclaimed by critics, which included the single «Blinding Lights» that set records on the charts and the number one singles in the United States «Heartless» and «Save Your Tears». His fifth album inspired by dance pop, Dawn FM (2022), included the single «Take My Breath» and «Sacrifice» among the top ten on the US charts.

Among the world's top-selling musical artists with over 75 million albums sold, Tesfaye holds several streaming and Billboard chart records. He is the first artist to debut simultaneously in the top three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while «Blinding Lights» is ranked as the best Hot 100 song in Billboard history. Often considered a prominent figure in contemporary pop music, Tesfaye was named one of the world's most influential people by Time in 2020. As a defender of racial equality and food security, he was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Food Programme in 2021.

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born on February 16, 1990, in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario. He is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, an Ethiopian immigrant couple who arrived in Canada in the 1980s. He was raised in Scarborough, a neighborhood filled with diverse cultures within the city. During his youth, his mother worked in various jobs to support the family, often as a nurse and catering, while attending night school. His father later left the family, which led his maternal grandmother to care for him while he was young. This allowed him to become fluent in Amharic. His grandmother also took him to his "services" at an Ethiopian Orthodox Church.