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How The Weeknd Went From Obscure Artist To Superstar In 5 Steps
By Melinda Newman
Contributor
Has an artist ever gone from relative obscurity to ubiquity faster than The Weeknd?
This week, not only does The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, have the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with his XO/Republic set, Beauty Behind The Madness with the year’s second highest equivalent album sales of 412,000, the Toronto-based artist has the No. 2 and 3 slots on Billboard’s Hot 100 with the Michael Jackson-redolent “I Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills.”
Don’t feel too bad that he doesn’t have the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Hot 100. “Can’t Feel My Face” occupied it for two weeks and is still No. 1, for the eighth week on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. For stat geeks, The Weeknd is the first male artist to have two of the top three songs as lead artist on the Billboard Hot 100 since T.I. in November 2008.
So how did this happen? First off, obscurity is a bit of an exaggeration: his previous two albums both debuted in the Top 10, 2012’s Trilogy, and 2013’s Kiss Land, so he had an active fan base. Before that, his mix tape, House of Balloons, was shortlisted for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize and tastemaker Pitchfork was already singing his praises.
But, The Weeknd has radio to thank and a series of canny moves that helped move him into the mainstream, including collaborating with label mate Ariana Grande on “Love Me Harder,” which put him in front of a whole new audience. By the time Beauty was released Aug. 28, The Weeknd has scored three Top 5 singles, led by “Earned It,” from the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack, which peaked at No. 3.
Though it’s tempting to discount terrestrial radio’s influence when it comes to music discovery with so many other online options and teens turning to friends to learn of new artists, a 2015 Edison Research survey revealed that AM/FM radio led other sources with 29% as “most-used-for keeping up to date with new music.”
That means with hundreds of spins a week for each of these three songs, The Weeknd’s tunes were providing mighty ear worms, even for those who were passively listening.
