The Weeknd
The Guinness World Records has officially declared Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, more commonly known as The Weeknd, to be the “world’s most popular artist” on the planet.
On its website, Guiness said the 33-year-old Canadian singer is statistically way above his contemporaries, and that “no one else even comes close.” It noted that Michael Jackson is the only other solo male musician to have ever achieved this feat.
This gave The Weeknd the distinction of having set two new world record titles:
- Most monthly listeners on Spotify – 111.4 million (as of 20 March 2023)
- First artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify
The Weeknd has previously already won his first Guinness World Records titles in 2016.
Currently, The Weeknd has almost 30 million more monthly listeners, with “Flowers” singer Miley Cyrus coming in second with 82.4 million.
Shakira, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift follow next with 81.6 million, 80.6 million, and 80.2 million, respectively. Rihanna, with whom The Weeknd collaborated in the past, has 78.5 million, while his closest male challenger, Ed Sheeran has 77.5 million.
Recently, The Weekend’s streaming figures surged with the release of his “Die For You” remix featuring Ariana Grande, which went viral on TikTok. It was on top of the Billboard Hot 100. The original “Die For You” was released in 2016 as part of the musician’s Starboy album, which went on until it peaked in 2022.
Another 1 Ari ⭐️🌙 pic.twitter.com/e4q98RdRRi
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) March 6, 2023
In 2016 he was awarded two world record certificates: one for the most streamed album on Spotify in 2015, and another for the most consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 by a solo male artist.
The Weeknd receives two Guinness World Records certificates in 2016. Image from Guinness
“The album was Beauty Behind the Madness, which, led by the single “Can’t Feel My Face,” propelled The Weeknd to global superstardom,” Guinness further said.
Meanwhile, “Blinding Lights” from his fourth album, After Hours, remained on top of the music streaming app with over 3.4 billion streams as of February 2023, easing out Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” which had been on the top spot since September 2017.