Key Points
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Footage of the Weeknd at his Stockholm concert over the weekend shows him hinting he doesn’t plan to change his name.
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The Weeknd — real name Abel Tesfaye —has said for years that would drop his moniker.
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He’s also teased that he wants to go by a single name like Prince or Madonna.
The Weeknd is here to stay.
While there was a time when the Grammy winner thought he might drop his stage name, not anymore.
“I tested retirement a little bit, and I don’t like the way it feels,” the artist told his concert audience Saturday in Stockholm, per footage captured by a fan. “Imma be here forever with you.”
The artist, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, is currently on his “After Hours Til Dawn” tour of Europe, which continues through Sept. 6 in Lisbon, Portugal, following stints in cities including London, Dublin, Madrid, and Barcelona.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to reps for the Weeknd.
The Canadian artist behind hits such as “Blinding Lights,” “Earned It,” and “Save Your Tears” has long said that he planned to drop the moniker he currently uses.
In April 2022, he said during an online discussion with fans that he might “pull a Ye,” a reference to Kanye West, who famously shortened his name.
“I feel like i should change my stage name to ABEL at this point lol,” he wrote, adding “maybe pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL. no last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince.”
“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.”
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And he was adamant.
“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.”
When he released 2025’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, the Weeknd explained his thinking.
“I don’t think I can stop doing [music],” he told Variety. “But everything needs to feel like a challenge. And for me right now, the Weeknd, whatever that is, it’s been mastered. No one’s gonna do the Weeknd better than me, and I’m not gonna do it better than what it is right now.”
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