Abel Tesfaye Is Considering Retiring The Weeknd ‘Existence’

The Weeknd has a “new everything” coming out in 2025. A new movie. A new tour. A new album. And maybe a new identity.

Ahead of the release of Hurry Up Tomorrow, billboards started popping up reading “The End Is Near,” written in different fonts representing Abel Tesfaye’s different eras as The Weeknd. He also wrote “8 beautiful chapters in this story” on social media. When asked by Variety if he’s ending the After Hours trilogy (which consists of 2020’s After Hours, 2022’s Dawn FM, and the upcoming Hurry Up Tomorrow) or his identity as The Weeknd, music’s biggest concept artist replied, “I would say my existence as The Weeknd.”

He continued, “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.”

Tesfaye isn’t done making music, per se, but “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.”

Hurry Up Tomorrow is out January 24.