Now that The Weeknd has officially been inducted into the HBO family, the man born Abel Tesfaye might retire his calendrical moniker in the not-too-distant future. Speaking to W Magazine in a cover story pegged to his new series The Idol, Tesfaye said that his next album is “probably [his] last hurrah as The Weeknd.”
“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” Tesfaye told W. “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.”
Tesfaye has hinted that his next album could complete a trilogy that would also comprise 2020’s After Hours and last year’s Dawn FM, so he’s already forged a good stopping point ahead of him: “The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd,” he went on. “This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.”
Rounding out his Weeknd era with a trilogy would also be a heartwarming move for longtime fans, who’ll recall the artist got his start in 2011 with the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, which were all compiled on the appropriately-titled Trilogy.
And even if he hadn’t recently deemed Rolling Stone “irrelevant,” it seems like Tesfaye is actively in search of other creative pursuits. Last fall, he helped curate Universal Studios’ “After Hours Nightmare” haunted house exhibit, which looks like it’d make for a pretty sick movie concept. He’s also set to star in an upcoming feature film opposite Jenna Ortega, following his acting debut in 2019’s Uncut Gems. And, of course, we’ll see him in The Idol when it premieres June 4th.
A potential imminent retirement is all the more reason to catch The Weeknd on his 2023 “After Hours Til Dawn Tour.” Grab tickets at StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.
