The Weeknd spent years preparing fans for the possibility that his famous stage name was nearing its end. Now Abel Tesfaye says he has tried stepping away from the identity and decided he does not want to leave it behind after all.
During his August 8 concert in Stockholm, Tesfaye told the crowd that he had “tested retirement a little bit” but did not like how it felt. “I’ll never disappear. I love this too much to ever disappear,” he said before adding, “Imma be here forever with you,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
Even when Tesfaye was seriously discussing retiring the moniker, he repeatedly said he expected to continue making music in some form.
His latest remarks reverse a transition that had appeared increasingly serious through 2025. By then, Tesfaye had released Hurry Up Tomorrow, described the Weeknd persona as something he believed he had mastered and publicly acknowledged that he had already started experimenting with leaving the name behind.
He Had Already Started ‘Retiring’ the Name in 2025
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At the New York premiere of the Hurry Up Tomorrow film in May 2025, Tesfaye told PEOPLE that the process had already begun. “Have I started? Yeah, it’s getting there,” he said. “I mean, I’m on tour right now, so I can’t fully retire it.”
The idea went back even further. In April 2022, Tesfaye publicly floated the possibility of using Abel as his professional name, writing that he felt he should change his stage name to “ABEL” and even suggesting he might legally adopt the single name.
By May 2023, his thinking had become more definitive. He described the album he was then developing as potentially his “last hurrah as the Weeknd” and said he was preparing to close that chapter while continuing to make music.
“I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as the Weeknd,” he told W Magazine at the time. “But I still want to kill the Weeknd. And I will. Eventually.”
The 2022 SoFi Show Changed How He Saw the Weeknd Persona
Tesfaye later connected his desire for a reset to a September 2022 concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where he lost his voice shortly after beginning the show and had to stop the performance. In a January 2025 Variety interview, he said the experience left him feeling defeated and forced him to reassess his life and public identity.
“I knew that I really needed to sit the f— down and figure out my life,” he said. “To understand what happened, face it, learn something new and start again.” Tesfaye described what followed as “a kind of a mental breakdown” and said part of him wondered whether losing his voice meant he had reached the natural end of the Weeknd persona.
He also described growing tired of the competitive cycle attached to that identity, including the pursuit of more accolades, shows, albums, awards and No. 1 records. “You have a persona, but then you have the competition of it all,” he said. “It becomes this rat race: more accolades, more success, more shows, more albums, more awards and more No. 1s. It never ends until you end it.”
“I don’t think I can stop doing that,” Tesfaye said. “But everything needs to feel like a challenge. And for me right now, the Weeknd, whatever that is, it’s been mastered.”
The ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ Tour Is Still Carrying the Name Forward
The Stockholm declaration came while Tesfaye was performing on the European leg of his long-running After Hours Til Dawn tour. “I’ll never disappear,” he told the audience. “I love this too much to ever disappear. I tested retirement a little bit, and I don’t like the way it feels. Imma be here forever with you.”
For now, he remains on the After Hours Til Dawn tour. The official tour schedule has the European leg continuing through September 6 in Lisbon before the tour moves to Asia, beginning with two shows in Tokyo on September 19 and 20.