The Weeknd is now officially known online by his real name – Abel Makkonen Tesfaye – after following through on plans to update his social media accounts. On Monday, the Canadian artist’s Twitter and Instagram accounts had updated to display his birth name rather than his artistic name. And the change is part of a wider plan to “kill The Weeknd,” Tesfaye told W Magazine in an interview published May 8. “I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he said.
“The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd,” he told W Magazine. “This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.” In March, Guinness World Records announced that the singer-songwriter is statistically the most popular musician on the planet. The 33-year-old took two new Guinness World Record titles. He had the most monthly listeners on Spotify, with 111.