The Weeknd is not walking away from his stage name after all. During a recent concert in Solna, a suburb outside Stockholm, Abel Tesfaye told the crowd, "I'll never disappear. I love this too much to ever disappear." He followed it with a line that undercuts two years of retirement talk: "I tested retirement a little bit, and I don't like the way it feels."
The reversal caps a stretch where Tesfaye kept signaling an exit. In 2023 he said he was going to "kill the Weeknd," and last year he framed his 2025 album Hurry Up Tomorrow as his last under that name. He explained the thinking at the time: "You said what you had to say. Don't overstay at the party, you can end it now and live a happy life." He went further, asking when the right moment to leave really is if not at a peak.
The on-again framing follows directly from an August 10 report that The Weeknd was already stepping back from retiring his stage name, so the Solna comments read less like a sudden reversal and more like a confirmation of where things were already heading. Tesfaye has spent the Hurry Up Tomorrow era working past music too, including a companion film and the TV series The Idol, both of which drew a rougher critical reception than his records.
No new album has been announced to go with the change of plan. For now the only concrete update is the one he gave onstage: the pop and R&B star behind Hurry Up Tomorrow, After Hours and Starboy says he is staying put under the name that made him famous, with whatever comes next still unannounced.
The facts
- Says he is not retiring the Weeknd name
- Made the comments during a concert in Solna, outside Stockholm
- In 2023 said he planned to "kill the Weeknd"
- Called 2025's Hurry Up Tomorrow his last album under the name at the time
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