It may have appeared that the Weeknd had nowhere else to go after his 2020 album “After Hours,” which included the global hit “Blinding Lights,” that he’d finally reached the summit of the mountain he’d spent the decade climbing, starting out as a freaky recalibrator of R&B and ending up making unifying 1980s-style hits that need no translation.
What’s Left for the Weeknd to Conquer?
Dawn FM, his latest release, suggests at least one future direction: leaning in on specific sections and subgenres of that decade in order to explore methods for expanding the niche.
During this week’s Popcast, we’ll be discussing how to make big tent pop in an age of micro, and just how few options remain for the biggest mainstream pop star’s next steps.
Weeknd Career and Net Worth
The Weeknd has never been afraid to branch out and experiment with his music, and the results have always been stunning. He broke out by radically altering R&B’s sound, which he then made sparser and darker.
Then he took his distinctive style public, singing about melancholy themes like isolation and drug abuse in a way that had never been done before. After finding success with that style, he included electro-pop into his music and shot to even greater heights, eventually becoming one of the biggest stars in the world.
The Weeknd (born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) has gone from living in a small flat with friends to being one of the wealthiest musicians in the business in the decade and a half since he released his debut mixtapes.
It seems like there’s nothing he can’t accomplish, as he consistently releases new chart-topping songs and creates albums that are both critically praised and commercially successful.
In spite of the fact that it was a complete surprise, his new album Dawn FM and its tracks “Take My Breath,” “Sacrifice,” and “Out of Time” were all very well received.
In his upcoming HBO series The Idol, The Weeknd will co-star with Lily-Rose Depp. In order to create what he calls “the sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood,” he linked up with Euphoria showrunner Sam Levinson. In 2022, the performer also set off on a tour that has the potential to earn him $1 million every performance.
Weeknd Music
The Weeknd is one of the few musicians who has reportedly made hundreds of millions of dollars solely from his songs. Already, the hitmaker has a history full of successful albums and significant hits that have made him a lot of money in his little more than a decade as a global star.
A total of six of The Weeknd’s singles have topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and he has eight more songs in the top 10 of that chart. To date, he has had 91 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to his efforts.
Taking a peek at the Billboard 200 albums list reveals that he has had success with both solo songs and album releases.
A total of four albums written or performed by the artist have debuted at the top of Billboard’s album sales list (the Billboard 200), with an equal number entering the top 10 of the chart.
