The Weeknd Says He’s Retiring His Stage Persona After His Next Album

May 9, 2023 / Posted by:

Like a mob boss who no longer needs his henchman,  Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye is ready to kill off The Weeknd. Abel spilled that after he releases the album he’s currently working on, he’s going to kill off his The Weeknd persona since he’s “said everything” he can say at this point while under his current stage name. Well, maybe now that he’s 33, he’s getting bored with crooning about doing drugs at the club with hot chicks and will now start crooning about grown-up problems like the struggles of staying awake while watching a movie or figuring out what to cook for dinner. Just call him The Weekdy!

The Weeknd did an interview with W Magazine to promote his messy HBO show, The Idol, which was co-created by Euphoria’s Sam Levinson and also stars Lily-Rose Depp. The show has reportedly been a train wreck behind and in front of cameras, with sources calling it “torture porn” and saying that Sam Levinson reshot most episodes after the original director, Amy Seimetz, left.  The Weeknd told W Magazine that he struggled with balancing his character on the show with his current stage persona:

“It was tough to go from one head to another. Then, after the concert, I lost my voice. No voice came out at all. That’s never happened before. My theory is that I forgot how to sing because I was playing Tedros, a character who doesn’t know how to sing. I may be looking too deeply into this, but it was terrifying. As The Weeknd, I’ve never skipped a concert. I’ve performed with the flu. I’ll die on that stage. But there was something very complicated going on with my mind at that moment.”

Tesfaye’s identity crisis was about more than juggling two characters in one night. “I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he said. “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.”

According to him, his next album is probably gonna be his, “last hurrah as The Weeknd,” but he’s still going to make music in the future, just under a different name. And while he might be MIA from our playlists until he figures out his new personality/rebrand, he’ll be making up for it with screen time on The Idol plus his first-ever lead movie role in a currently untitled feature film directed by Trey Edwards Shults which Abel also wrote and produced.

The Idol comes out in June, and The Weeknd is credited as Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye in the show. So maybe the show is so bad that even The Weeknd is preparing to distance himself from it by dropping his stage name. “Oh, that show, The Idol? Horrible, right? What was The Weeknd thinking?!” said Abel Tesfaye in the future, probably.

Pic: INSTARImages

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