The Weeknd now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye, after he said he wanted to ‘kill The Weeknd’

Canadian pop star The Weeknd changed his name on social media on Monday to Abel Tesfaye, his birth name.

Tesfaye chose to keep his Instagram and Twitter handles as The Weeknd and made no changes to his Facebook account whatsoever.

It’s not clear why Tesfaye, 33, made the change. in An interview with W Magazine This month, he said he’s preparing to reinvent himself as a musician.

He told the magazine, “I’m traversing a cathartic path right now. It’s getting to a place and time where I’m getting ready to close out the weekend class. I’m going to keep making music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually.” I am definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”

Tesfaye said the album he’s working on may be his “last break as The Weeknd.”

“This is something I have to do,” he said. Like The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.

Tesfaye’s team said there would be no further comment on the social media name change.

Tesfaye, singer of “Blinding Lights” and “Dee For You”, He was awarded the title of the most popular artist in the world This year after analyzing Spotify data. Guinness World Records awarded Tesfaye the title, adding that Set two recordsMost listeners per month on Spotify, 111.4 million as of March 20, and the first artist to reach 100 million listeners per month on Spotify.

Guinness credited Tesfaye’s streaming numbers skyrocketing with the release of the “Die for You” remix featuring Ariana Grande, which went viral on TikTok.

The song was originally released as part of his “Starboy” album in 2016.

The only other musician to achieve this feat is Michael Jackson, according to Guinness World Records.