Global superstar The Weeknd has revealed he will be reverting back to his birth name from his pop persona.
The 33-year-old Canadian artist has used the moniker since 2011 after spending more than two years releasing music anonymously on YouTube.
Last month, The Weeknd asked his adoring fans whether he should change his name on social media. He has since changed his name on all his social media channels to birth name Abel Tesfaye.
The four time Grammy Award winning hitmaker wrote: "ABEL formally known as The Weeknd?", to which more than 100,000 people liked the tweet.
And it appears that the singer has listened to his fans, with him adamant that he will adopt his birth name in the future due to his desire to "kill The Weeknd".
Speaking in an interview with W - an American fashion magazine - the artist revealed his intentions going forward with his stage name.
He said: "I’m going through a cathartic path right now. It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd.
"But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn."
The Weeknd is currently recording his sixth studio album and he confirmed it will probably be his "last hurrah" using the moniker.
He added: "The album I’m working on now is probably my last hurrah as The Weeknd. This is something that I have to do. As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say."
The interview was part of the promotional preview for his upcoming HBO show The Idol, where he stars alongside Lily-Rose Depp.
The upcoming series is said to have been plagued by delays and rewrites but will hit our screens on June 4.
Earlier this year, a damning report from The Rolling Stone described the show as something which has "gone wildly, disgustingly off the rails". This is due to the "unrealistic expectations" from producers and the filming of graphic sex scenes.
The Rolling Stone had shared quotes from insiders on the series who described production as "like sexual torture porn".
However, both The Weeknd and Lily-Rose hit out at the publication as she defended The Idol's director Sam Levinson.
The 23-year-old actress told E! News : "Sam is, for so many reasons, the best director I have ever worked with. Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input and opinions more valued.
"Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way—it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it."
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