Grammy award winning diamond certified R&B /pop artist Abel Tesfaye has made a name for himself all over the world as The Weeknd. His most fourth studio album titled ‘After Hours’ was released on March 20, 2020,and was one of the most popular albums of 2020 according to Rolling Stone, and has led to him being the Super Bowl halftime show performer.

     According to the Rolling Stone ‘After Hours’ “topped Alpha Data’s mid-year ranking [of 202] with 1.3 million album units in the U.S.” Tesfaye’s 2020 album did 18,000 sales — more than any other album in 2020. In addition, he had the year’s biggest debut from January through June.

     The Weeknd breakout single ‘Binding Lights’ that is from the ‘After Hours’ album has been used in advertising for the Super Bowl halftime show performance. 

     ‘Blinding Lights’ reached number one on R&B Songs chart on March 7, 2020, where it became his seventh number one on the chart, making him the artist with the most number ones on the chart’s history. The song also attained a record-breaking reign of 44 weeks on the R&B song charts.

     In preparation for the Super Bowl halftime show performance his manager, stated that The Weeknd has put up $7 million of his own money towards the production of the show.

     Although the Super Bowl organizers are covering all of the usual production costs, The Weeknd’s manager Wassim Slaiby said the money Tesfaye invested into the performance is to ensure he can “make this halftime show be what he envisioned.”

     Since he began promoting his album in December of 2019 to today, The Weeknd has been wearing the same outfit and makeup during his performances and music videos of the ‘After Hours’ album.

     This outfit consists of a red blazer, black leather gloves, but he also seems to look like he had just gotten out of a fight. With fake bruises and a seemingly broken nose, the makeup has been seen from red carpet events to performances. 

     According to the Grammy award winner, the makeup is symbolic he stated in an interview with Variety “The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated,”

     The Weeknd has also referred to the person who represents the album of ‘After Hours’ as a character. He continued “It’s all a progression and we watch the character’s storyline hit heightened levels of danger and absurdity as his tale goes on.”

     Senior Maddie Pawlukovich reacted to the performance on Sunday and said “I have seen him in concert so I already knew he sounded really good live, but it was so fun to see him stick to his theme with this album during the performance. He also played some older songs which was so cool hearing them being played next to his new songs.”