After his blockbuster performance during the halftime show at Super Bowl LV, fans have been quick to praise The Weeknd’s journey from being homeless and down on his luck to starring on one of the biggest and most iconic stages in the world of entertainment.
As the two teams caught their breath in the changing rooms, the Canadian artist – real name Abel Tesfaye – took to the stage to perform a medley of his hits, including ‘I Feel It Coming’ and ‘Blinding Lights’.
However, he wasn’t always set along this path.
He’s spoken in the past about how he worked his way up from the streets of Toronto to where he stands today.
Tesfaye has described himself as a ‘street kid’ growing up in the suburb of Scarborough. He said: “I really thought film was gonna be my way out, but I couldn’t really make a movie to feel better, you know?
“Music was very direct therapy; it was immediate and people liked it. It definitely saved my life.”
After a difficult upbringing, he was living in an apartment with two friends, paid for by their welfare benefits, shoplifting food just to survive, as well as turning to selling drugs and living a ‘no rules’ lifestyle.
Eventually, they were kicked out of their flat, meaning that he had to stay on the couches of other people just to keep a roof over his head.
He’s even admitted to telling girls that he loved them just so that they’d let him crash at their place.
He told The New York Times: “There was, like, three girls that thought legit that I was their boyfriend.”
Tesfaye also admits to spending some time in jail during his teenage years, which encouraged him to ‘smarten up, to focus’.
He added: “A lot of people don’t get that second chance.
“But around that age, you usually get one second chance after a slap on the wrist.
“And you either take the experience and think, ‘This is it, final straw,’ or you don’t. And the next move after that? It’s your entire life.
“You become who you become because of the next move you make.”
Well, it seems as if he eventually managed to start making the right moves, and that brought him to the biggest stage in not just American sport, but also one of the largest performances that any artist can make.
It’s been a long road, but it seems like it has been worth it.
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