The Weeknd Might Change His Name to ABEL
The Weeknd stated that he might “pull a YE” by officially changing his stage name to ABEL. On 3rd April, the Canadian singer-songwriter whose actual name is Abel Tesfaye, took to Twitter to write: “You guys are hilarious. I feel like I should change my stage name to ABEL at this point lol.”
In a follow-up tweet, the ‘Dawn FM’ artist alluded to Kanye West’s recent decision to change his legal name to ‘Ye’ (he’ll be on the Coachella 2022 line-up as ‘Ye’), as well as other major performers who go by a single moniker.
“Maybe [I’ll] pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL,” The Weekend said. “No last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince. I don’t know it seems like a lot.”
Later, he asked his followers: “ABEL formally [sic] known as The Weeknd?” John Legend subsequently replied, saying that “ABEL is dope” to which Tesfaye responded: “I’m tempted …”.
Check out those tweets below.
According to Complex, The Weeknd stated almost a decade ago in a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session that “The Weekend” was originally intended to be the title of his 2011 debut mixtape, ‘House Of Balloons.’
“I hated my name at the time though so I tried it as a stage name,” he explained. “It sounded cool. I took out the ‘e’ because there was already a Canadian band named The Weekend (copyright issues).”
Tesfaye was asked about the difference between Abel and The Weeknd during an interview with GQ last summer. “The lines were blurry at the beginning,” he replied.
“And as my career developed—as I developed as a man—it’s become very clear that Abel is someone I go home to every night. And The Weeknd is someone I go to work as.”
The Weeknd’s ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ headline tour is set to kick off in July in North America.
—Silviya.Y
