The Weeknd Net Worth and How He Achieved His Wealth
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, is a producer, singer and songwriter with a net worth of $300 million.
He who was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on February 16th, 1990.
The Weeknd is the sole child of the separated Ethiopian immigrants Makkonen Tesfaye and Samrawit Hailu, who arrived in the United States before his birth.
His mother and grandmother raised him in the district of Scarborough (Toronto, Canada).
A few years later, with two companions, including his best buddy and current creative director La Mar Taylor, Tesfaye left school.
Also, he was just 17 and decided to move to a flat in the Parkdale neighborhood with his two friends.
He compared that period of his life to the 1995 movie “Kids without the AIDS” because of the hedonistic lifestyle he led with his friends.
He was imprisoned multiple times and faced homelessness throughout that time, which has inspired him to “smarten up and focus.”
Tesfaye is a highly enigmatic person who prefers to keep his private affairs hidden from the public eye. In the early stages of his work, he avoided speaking on the phone and preferred to interact via Twitter, which he attributed to shyness and fears.
As per his dating life, we know that Tesfaye and American model Bella Hadid had an on-again, off-again romance from April 2015 through August 2019.
| Full Name: | Abel Makkonen Tesfaye |
| Known As: | The Weeknd |
| Born: | Feb 16, 1990 – Toronto, Canada |
| Music Genre: | Pop, Rap, R&B |
| Net Worth: | $300 Million |
The Weeknd Net Worth and How He Achieved His Wealth
The Weeknd net worth is $300 Million, as of 2023. He amassed this fortune by working as a music producer, songwriter and singer.
Early career
Tesfaye started publishing music on YouTube in secret in August 2009. The producer Jeremy Rose, who had a concept for a dark modern R&B album, was someone he met the following year.
Tesfaye freestyle rapped over an accompaniment that Rose had played for him after originally attempting to pitch the idea to musician Curtis Santiago.
He first recorded music as the Noise and then as Kin Kane before deciding to go by the stage name the Weeknd.
Tesfaye first met Wassim “Sal” Slaiby and Amir “Cash” Esmailian in 2011, and they later collaborated to form the XO record label, which they also co-founded with Taylor.
At the Mod Club Theatre in Toronto in July 2011, Tesfaye gave his debut live performance.
Following the show, Drake and Tesfaye had a meeting to talk about potential collaborations. In the end, Tesfaye received an invitation to perform at Drake’s OVO Festival.
Tesfaye released Trilogy on November 13, 2012. Trilogy is a compilation album that includes 3 extra songs in addition to remastered versions of his mixtapes from 2011.
Rose didn’t receive credit for the three House of Balloons songs. However, in the end they were formally credited as being produced and written by him on the album.
With 86,000 copies sold in its first week, Trilogy debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard 200. On the Canadian Albums Chart, it debuted at number five with comparable sales.
The Hills, Tesfaye’s second song from Beauty Behind the Madness, was made available on May 27, 2015.
The song became Tesfaye’s first number-one single when it peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after debuting at number twenty. Tesfaye’s debut diamond-certified record, The Hills, was granted by the RIAA in June 2019.
Recent years
On August 28, 2015, Tesfaye released his second studio album, Beauty Behind the Madness.
It reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart after selling 412,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. In more than ten nations, it made the top 10, and in Canada, Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom, it was the number one song.
Tesfaye and Kendrick Lamar’s song Pray for Me appeared in the soundtrack of the movie Black Panther on February 2, 2018. The song, the third single from the soundtrack, reached its highest point at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tesfaye foreshadowed the release of his single Blinding Lights on November 24, 2019, in a Mercedes-Benz ad. As the first single from his fourth studio album, he made Heartless available on November 27.
Tesfaye’s fourth number-one hit debuted at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number one.
More about his career
The Weeknd released his debut live album, Live at SoFi Stadium, on March 3, 2023. It includes audio from the same-titled HBO concert film, which contains footage from the final performance of his After Hours til Dawn Tour’s North American leg at SoFi Stadium.
Another important milestone of The Weeknd’s career is that he and Sam Levinson co-created the HBO drama series The Idol, and they both star in it alongside Lily-Rose Depp.
This series made its debut outside of competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it sparked intense controversy due to its graphic representation of sexual content and nudity on screen.
The Weeknd on Social Media
On Instagram, The Weeknd has 61.8 Million followers and he usually posts pictures of his concerts.
On Twitter, the artist has 17.3 Million followers and he mostly posts videos of his concerts.
The Weeknd Quotes
- “The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.”
- “The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.”
Source: BrainyQuote
Key Takeaways from The Weeknd Career
Give
The Weeknd has been known to do charity and to support the teaching of the classic language of Ethiopia.
This teaches us the importance of giving back to the community. Once we have the capacity to give back, we should do it as a sign of gratitude for the blessing that we have received.
Keep your privacy
It is known that The Weeknd enjoys maintaining his privacy.
This teaches us the importance of keeping our private life to ourselves, we should be very cautious of what we post or let the world know about us. In the end, if you think about it, privacy is crucial to maintain stability in our lives.
Imagine a life where you can’t go out because groups of people approach you wherever you go – and they know where you are because you let them know on Instagram. Or a life where some people start to obsess over you and follow you everywhere. Believe me, that’s not life.
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Featured Image: Nicolas Padovani, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
