After soaring to stardom under his globally known stage moniker, The Weeknd has reverted to his birth name, Abel Tesfaye, on his social media.
On Monday, the Canadian artist updated his screen name on Twitter and Instagram, although the handle on both remained @theweeknd.
His name change comes after the award-winning artist told W Magazine that he wanted to "kill The Weeknd".
And he's not the only artist to ditch their stage name.
'Ready to close The Weeknd chapter'
In an in-depth cover story for W magazine, the 33-year-old revealed he's on a "cathartic path" and was ready to close the chapter on his musical persona that has been known as The Weeknd.
"It's getting to a place and a time where I'm getting ready to close The Weeknd chapter," he told the magazine.
"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."
He also told the publication the album he's 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 Canadian artist — who was born to Ethiopian parents — rose to fame on a brand of dark R&B after gaining a strong following on YouTube more than a decade ago.
What's the meaning behind The Weeknd?
Tesfaye rarely gave interviews when his career was starting out — in a traditional sense, that is.
In 2016, the musician decided to field the public's questions via a thread on Reddit called AMA (Ask Me Anything).
He revealed where the name The Weeknd came from.
"I left home when I was about 17, dropped out of high school," he wrote.
"We grabbed our mattresses from our parents' threw it (sic) in our friends sh***y van and left one weekend and never came back home."
"I took out the 'e' because there was already a Canadian band named the weekend (copyright issues)," he added.
Which other artists have dropped their stage names?
Kanye West was a major one.
In October 2021, a Los Angeles judge approved the request of the rapper, producer and fashion designer to legally change his name from Kanye Omari West to just Ye, with no middle or last name.
“There being no objections, the petition for change of name is granted,” Judge Michelle Williams Court said in court documents.
The petition, which was filed in August 2021, cited “personal reasons”.
While he called himself Ye on his social media pages for years, West tweeted in 2018 that he wanted the change, saying, “the being formally known as Kanye West. I am YE.”
Another singer famed for changing his name is Prince.
However, rather than going by his birth name, Prince changed his to an unpronounceable symbol.
In 1993, the pop superstar announced he would no longer go by the name Prince but, instead, by a "Love Symbol" which was a mash-up of the gender symbols for man and woman.
At the time, the name change was an apparent protest against his record label Warner Bros.
For some time afterwards, he was dubbed “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.”
British folk singer Cat Stevens changed his name to Yusef Islam in 1978 following his conversion to Islam.
Although, his name change didn't come without some misunderstandings.
Islam was denied entry to the United States “on national security grounds” in September 2004.
His inbound flight was diverted to Maine and he and his daughter were taken off the plane.
He was viewed with suspicion because of his religious conversion.
Apparently no longer considered a terrorist, Islam's visa situation was cleared up, and he later returned to the United States to promote his 2006 comeback record, Another Cup, his first mainstream pop album in 28 years.
He now goes by both first names.
Bringing things back on home soil is Chet Faker, who not only dropped his stage name, but went back to it.
In 2016, the Australian singer announced he was changing his name to Nick Murphy in a Facebook post.
He explained there was "an evolution happening", and that his decision to release music under his own name was simply to explore that new direction.
However, four years later, Murphy revived his Chet Faker name with the release of his song Low.
When US singer-songwriter John Mellencamp first became famous, he was known as Johnny Cougar. That later evolved to John Cougar, then John Cougar Mellencamp, before he dropped the "Cougar" altogether.
The Weeknd declared world's most popular artist
In March this year, Tesfaye became the first artist to gain more than 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Unsurprisingly, the singer was named the most popular artist in the world following analysis of Spotify data.
Guinness World Records awarded Tesfaye with the title, adding that he set two records: most monthly listeners on Spotify, 111.4 million as of March 20, and first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
He is expected to premiere his new HBO series, The Idol, next month, with co-creator Sam Levison, who also directed Euphoria.
The show — which stars Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp — came under fire in a Rolling Stone report from March, where 13 anonymous sources close to the show claimed the program had "gone off the rails".
Rolling Stone described the show as "twisted torture porn".
ABC with wires
