The Weeknd has explained that the gratitude he’s carried with him over the past year, during his record-breaking After Hours Til Dawn tour, led him to rethink dropping his stage name altogether.
The Timeless artist says the year spent on the road convinced him to keep performing “as long as I possibly can.”
In a cover chat with GQ Hong Kong, he stated: “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 birth name is Abel Tesfaye, has recently pulled back on the plan to discard his alter ego, after first hinting at it more than a year ago.
Nevertheless, during a show in Stockholm in August, he addressed the audience with, “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 opened up about his introspection as he began to question his public persona, a shift that came after he lost his voice during a 2022 performance in Los Angeles.
Speaking to Variety at the time, he recalled: “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 creator felt that he’d “said what he had to say,” and 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 wanting to escape the “headspace” surrounding 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 clarified at the time that he had no plans to actually 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 commented: “Yeah, it’s getting there. I mean, I’m on tour right now, so I can’t fully retire it.”
At around the same time, he spoke with 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.”
