For a little while now, Abel Tesfaye has teased that he intends to retire his The Weeknd stage name. But, now he appears to be leaving the door open on continuing with his pseudonym.
Discussing whether the Hurry Up Tomorrow movie and album will be the death of “The Weeknd” in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said:
“It feels like it. I mean, I’ve kind of toyed with the idea in the past with albums. But it could also just be a rebirth. Who knows?”
This is a shift in tone from a January interview in which he spoke more definitively, saying, “It’s a headspace I’ve gotta get into that I just don’t have any more desire for. I feel like it comes with so much… You have a persona, but then you have the competition of it all. 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.”
He also said, “Everything needs to feel like a challenge. And for me right now, The Weeknd, whatever that is, it’s been mastered. No one’s gonna do the Weeknd better than me, and I’m not gonna do it better than what it is right now. I think I’ve overcome every challenge as this persona, and that’s why I’m really excited about this film, because I love this challenge. But I just want to know what comes after. I want to know what tomorrow looks like.”