Homeless to Forbes List

Harper Lynch
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

He closed his eyes as he sucked up another line. His nostril burns but it has become a usual routine. Years of abuse under his belt already, even at seventeen. Abel Makkonen Tesfsye was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. His parents were Ethiopian migrants to Canada in the late 1980's. His mother worked very hard, taking up as many jobs as she could. She also attended night school to learn English. His father abandoned the family later on, leaving his mother and grandmother to raise him. Since Tesfaye’s father was never around when he was growing up, and his mother was constantly working, his grandmother took care of him most of his young life. Because of this, Tesfaye speaks fluent Amharic; it was the first language he learned. His father started a new family soon after leaving Abel and his mother. Abel never got to know his father.

Abel has a long history of drug abuse. He smoked marijuana for the first time when he was eleven years old. From marijuana, he began to regularly use ecstasy, oxycodone, Xanax, cocaine, psilocybin, and ketamine.

He attended two high schools in his district but didn't graduate from either. He dropped out of high school and left home in 2007 with his friend Lamar. He was homeless for around 5-6 years. During this time he stayed in a van or at various houses that the XO crew used. Abel’s stage name “The Weeknd” comes from this time in his life.

“After he left one weekend and never came home.”

The Weeknd’s glory years were from 2010- present. So many life changing events have happened for him in such little time, and with no motivation and support from his family. After he left, he started performing at clubs, and on streets to get himself recognized. He soon released three songs on Youtube and started grabbing people’s attention. He started to work on his mixtape after the positive reviews from his 3 songs. On March 21, 2011 he released his first mixtape ‘House of Balloons’ on his website for free. As he was getting noticed by the media he kept working on more mixtapes for his fans. In July 2011, he went on tour and performed at the mod club for an hour and a half. After this, people were going crazy over this new singer and songwriter.

Over the next few years, he released his mixtapes Thursday and Echos of Silence.

The Weeknd then started to collaborate with other artists, such as Ariana Grande, Drake, Wiz Khalifa, Sia, and Drake. His songs appeared in movies such as Hunger Games, and Fifty Shades of Grey. In 2014, it was announced that Abel was headlining the “King of the Fall” tour, and to promote he released a song called “King of The Fall”. “Beauty Behind the Madness” was released in 2015. On the week of September 8, 2015, The Weeknd became the first male artist in nearly seven years with two songs on the Hot 100’s top three in the same week, with “Can’t Feel My Face” at #2 and “The Hills” at #3, both as a lead act.The Weeknd’s latest album, “Starboy” was released in 2016.

Abel has now been clocking 5.5 billion streaming spins in the past two years and more than $1.1 million per stop on his Starboy: Legend of the Fall World Tour.

“Artists don’t really make the money off the music like we did in the Golden Age,” the Weeknd tells FORBES. “It’s not really coming in until you hit the stage.”

Abel’s story is an inspiring, motivating road to fame. He pushed through and overcame many obstacles and in the end, his risks paid off. But unless God has blessed you with the vocals of The Weeknd, stay in school and don’t do drugs.

Harper Lynch

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