Source: Photo by Kevin Mazur/MTV VMAs 2020/Getty Images for MTV) / Photo by Kevin Mazur/MTV VMAs 2020/Getty Images for MTV
That’s the question that all of his fans are asking. The Weeknd (born Abel Tesfaye) told W Magazine in May, “I’m going through a cathartic path right now. 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.”
Shortly thereafter, he updated his display name across his social media accounts to “Abel Tesfaye,” but he’s kept @theweeknd as his handle. So, technically, the name change has sort of already taken place. But Tesfaye will have to keep The Weeknd alive at least until December, as The Weeknd’s ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) After Hours Til Dawn Tour still has to weave through Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Australia, and New Zealand.
On August 9 in Poland, he performed an unreleased song called “Another One Of Me” and billed it as “the last feature I ever do, ever in my career.” Yet again, however, Tesfaye stopped short of totally killing The Weeknd because, when posting his performance to X he wrote, “the final feature… unless Daft Punk ever get back together.”
