The Weeknd is not being retired. Abel Tesfaye has told GQ Hong Kong that he got a look at what retirement would be and decided against it, and the singer ended the answer by saying flatly that The Weeknd is not going anywhere.
This is the second time he has walked the idea back, which is why NME frames it as doubling down rather than news. Tesfaye had talked about shelving the stage name around the release of Hurry Up Tomorrow in 2025, joked about renaming himself ABEL, and then told a crowd last August that he would never disappear.
What he is doing instead has a name he chose carefully. He said he is not stepping away from anything, just hibernating, and defined disappearing as putting all his energy into one project rather than juggling several at once. Tesfaye pointed to the past five years to explain why: four concept albums, a stack of videos, a television series, a feature film and a world tour spanning years.
He also gave a reason for staying that is about material rather than money. He said he had thought about simply stopping, then realised how much inspiration would go to waste, and that he has not felt this inspired since the beginning of his career.
The story he was ending is a specific one. Tesfaye said his fans know he has shed his skin repeatedly, that he was telling a single story from 2020 to now, and that the story has reached its conclusion, with the caveat that it was only the 2020 story. The trilogy that closed with Hurry Up Tomorrow is what he means.
The live business has not paused. He finished a sold-out five-night run at Wembley Stadium on 19 August, with two shows at Manchester's Etihad in June, and the UK and European ticket sales raised more than $350,000 for the United Nations World Food Programme and Global Citizen through a per-ticket donation. He is in Tokyo this weekend for the final Asian leg of the After Hours Til Dawn tour.
Our earlier pop coverage of this on-and-off retirement includes the first step back from retiring the name and the follow-up saying he is not retiring it after all.
The facts
- Abel Tesfaye says The Weeknd is not going anywhere.
- He told GQ Hong Kong that a glimpse of retirement was not for him.
- He describes the coming break as hibernating rather than stepping away.
- He says disappearing means focusing on one project instead of several.
- He cites four concept albums, a TV show and a film in five years.
- He finished a five-night Wembley Stadium run on 19 August 2026.
- Those UK and European ticket sales raised more than $350,000 for charity.
- He is finishing the After Hours Til Dawn tour in Asia.
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