The Weeknd

"Amy" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals

The Weeknd in 2015, photo by Prphotos.com

Birth Name: Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

Place of Birth: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Date of Birth: February 16, 1990

Ethnicity: Amhara Ethiopian

The Weeknd is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. His songs include “Love Me Harder,” “Earned It,” “The Hills,” “Can’t Feel My Face,” “In the Night,” “Acquainted,” “Starboy,” “I Feel It Coming,” “Party Monster,” “Die for You,” “Pray for Me,” “Call Out My Name,” “Heartless,” “Blinding Lights,” “After Hours,” “In Your Eyes,” “Smile,” “Save Your Tears,” “Hawái,” “You Right,” “Take My Breath,” “Hurricane,” “One Right Now,” “Sacrifice,” “Out of Time,” “Less than Zero,” “Creepin’,” “Double Fantasy,” “K-pop,” “Young Metro,” “Dancing in the Flames,” “Timeless,” and, in a feature role, “Crew Love” and “Low Life.” He has often used the falsetto register, and has created music in the contemporary and alternative R&B, pop, hip hop, dance-pop, new wave, and dream-pop styles. He co-founded the XO record label, and co-created and starred in the series The Idol. The Weeknd has sold over 75 million records worldwide; his song “Blinding Lights” has been the most-streamed in Spotify history. He has been a World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador since 2021, and is an advocate against racism and food insecurity. He is also known as The Noise, Kin Kane, and by his birth name Abel Tesfaye.

The Weeknd’s parents, Samrawit Hailu and Makkonen Tesfaye, are Ethiopian. He is fluent in Amharic, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. Growing up, he attended services at an Ethiopian Orthodox church. He was raised in Scarborough, and attended a French-immersion school. The Weeknd grew up listening to soul, quiet storm, hip hop, funk, indie rock, and post-punk.

The Weeknd’s paternal grandfather is named Tesfaye.

The Weeknd’s maternal grandmother is named Hailu.

83 Responses

  1. midori29 says:

    Nope. You just have a stereotypical image of an African black person thats not accurate. There are just as many light skin West Africans as there are light skinned East Africans.

  2. memphis says:

    Yeah because Africans are very diverse being that Africa has 54 countries and thousands of different ethnic looks and cultures. Like a German looks different from a Finn or someone from Spain. Not all Ethiopians are light skinned just like not all Nigerians are deep black skinned.

  3. waitwhat says:

    While his looks alone appear to be ethnically ambiguous, the fact that his father has a Scandinavian name made me think that he was part Finnish. I mean are Nordic names common in Ethiopia?

  4. Justinian says:

    He doesn’t look Ethiopian, a typical Ethiopian looks like this:

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Marcus_Samuelsson_2012.jpg

    They have Caucasian features on average usually. This guy Abel must have Bantu ancestry or something.

  5. xoxo says:

    He reminds me of an ethnic version of John Mayer.

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