The Weeknd has had a pretty fast-paced rise to fame. After his song ”Earned it” was featured in Fifty Shades of Grey, his name was spread wide.
To have the song “The Hills” topping the Billboard Hot 100 is admirable as the singer has put forth his bleak style since day one and the release of ”House of Baloons Triology”. When ”Earned it” and ”Can’t Feel My Face” topped the charts worldwide it was amazing, but it was a new side of The Weeknd. The fact that “The Hills” has succeeded on the same level is a tribute to his persona and style.
So far “The Hills” has been topping the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, and the new remixes from both Eminem and Nicki Minaj have, of course, been a factor in maintaining first place that many weeks in a row.
“I still loosen up, but I have much more control. I can go overboard, but nobody can stop me but myself,” Tesfay says in an interview with Billboard, his image on the cover of the same issue the interview was printed in. His journey from releasing the three records of the “Trilogy” in 2011 to being one of the fastest emerging and most innovative artists in the world of music has been a roller coaster. The biggest issue was getting other people to work with the “Often”singer, as they didn’t quite get him. “We had some idea that in hindsight definitely would not have fit,” says songwriter Savan Kotecha. “We were trying to bring him too much into our world. We had to learn how to move into his – to be more dark and innovative, and to trust him.” Even tanned songwriters had something to learn from the young, upcoming singer – he knew what he wanted; they just had to “get it”. And they did eventually.
“I couldn’t go home as nobody,” Abel Tesfaye says to Billboard when asked about his family. He and his Ethiopian-Canadian, single mother became estranged when he decided to drop out of high school to make music. “I couldn’t face her until I made something out of myself,” the singer says and ensures that the bond between him and his mother has been reestablished and strengthened during his break through.
Image via Flickr/The Come Up Show, resized
