Abel Tesfaye doubles down: ‘The Weeknd isn’t going anywhere’

The Weeknd says the “gratitude” he’s felt over the last year amid his record-breaking After Hours Til Dawn tour made him reverse his decision to abandon his stage name.

The Timeless hitmaker says the past year on tour convinced him to keep performing “as long as I possibly can.”

He told GQ Hong Kong in a cover interview: “It’s a real privilege to do what I do. There’s nothing else like this job. The gratitude I’ve felt over the last year has been overwhelming. I’m going to keep doing this for as long as I possibly can. The Weeknd isn’t going anywhere.”

The 36-year-old star, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, recently backtracked on the idea of scrapping his persona, having first teased the idea well over a year ago.

However, during a concert in Stockholm in August, he told fans: “I tested retirement a little bit, and I don’t like the way it feels.

“Imma be here forever with you.”

In January 2025, The Weeknd first opened up about his thought process as he started to question his public persona, which cane when he lost his voice during a 2022 gig in Los Angeles.

He told Variety at the time: “I knew that I really needed to sit the f*** down and figure out my life.

“To understand what happened, face it, learn something new and start again.

“I’d had a kind of a mental breakdown, which is pretty much what [the album Hurry Up Tomorrow is] about.”

The Blinding Lights hitmaker felt like he’d “said what he had to say”, and he didn’t want to “overstay at the party”.

He added: “When is the right time to leave, if not at your peak? Once you understand who I am too much, then it’s time to pivot.”

He found himself wanted to get out of the “headspace” around his stage name, which had become a “rat race” for “more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more Number Ones”.

However, he explained at the time that he had no plans to actual quit music.

He said: “I don’t think I can stop doing that. But everything needs to feel like a challenge. And for me right now, the Weeknd, whatever that is, it’s been mastered.”

A few months later, in May 2025, he told PEOPLE magazine that he had “started” the process of retiring his moniker.

He said: “Yeah, it’s getting there. I mean, I’m on tour right now, so I can’t fully retire it.”

Around the same time, he told The Hollywood Reporter: “We’re brainstorming it right now. I feel like we don’t have any definite answers, but I haven’t dropped it yet because I’m on tour, so I’ve still gotta get out there and see the fans.”