(CNN) — Canadian singer The Weeknd is now officially known online by his real name, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, after following plans to update his social media accounts.
On Monday, the Canadian entertainer’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were updated to show his birth name instead of his stage name.
And the change is part of a larger plan to “kill The Weeknd,” Tesfaye told W Magazine in an interview published May 8.
“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he said.
“I’m coming to a place and time where I’m preparing to close the Weeknd chapter. I will continue to make music, maybe like Abel, maybe like The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to get rid of this skin and be reborn.”
Abel Makonnen Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, pictured in Los Angeles in December 2022. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Tesfaye has revealed that his next album could very well be The Weeknd’s swan song.
“The album I’m working on right now is probably my last performance as The Weeknd,” he told W Magazine.
“It’s something I have to do. As The Weeknd, I said everything I could say.”
In March, Guinness World Records announced that the singer-songwriter was statistically the most popular musician on the planet.
The 33-year-old has won two new Guinness World Record titles. He had the most monthly listeners on Spotify, with 111.4 million as of March 20, and also became the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners.
A surge in listeners was partly due to a remix of “Die for You,” featuring Ariana Grande, going viral on TikTok, according to GWR.
The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – the seventh time The Weeknd has held the No. 1 spot. The original “Die for You” was released in 2016 on his “Starboy” album.
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