The Weeknd made Canada proud on Sunday (Feb.7) as he made history as the first solo Canadian act to headline a halftime show.

 

 

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It was reported that The Weeknd invested $7 million of his own money to bring his  performance to life.  Taking over Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium, Abel was backed by a full choir, and performed a handful of his greatest hits which included Can’t Feel My Face, The Hills, Earned It, and Blinding Lights.

 

 

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According to the New York Times, “To comply with pandemic protocol, the Weeknd’s halftime show employed around 1,050 people, which is a fraction of its normal work force. Staff were also subject to daily COVID tests.”  This year’s Super Bowl has been recorded as having its lowest in-person attendance in big game history – only 25,000 people.

 

 

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Prior to his performance, The Weeknd told Variety ‘he drew inspiration from Diana Ross’s performance at the Super Bowl XXX halftime show in 1996,’ “She’s just so glamorous and the show just makes me smile, and she has a great exit with the helicopter—it lands in the middle of the field, she grabs onto it and flies off into the clouds, it’s like… I wish I could have done that, I wish I’d thought of it. Although I don’t think I have enough money to do it!”

 

 

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To celebrate this massive accomplishment, Toronto Mayor John Tory proclaimed February 7th to be ‘The Weeknd Day’ in Toronto.  Ahead of his halftime performance, John Tory shared in a press release, “Millions of people will be watching him and cheering him on but we know Scarborough, a community he continues to support, will be cheering loudest!  Toronto is proud that one of its own, The Weeknd, has achieved such enormous popularity both here at home and on the world stage.”

 

 

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Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is the only child of two Ethiopian immigrants.  Reflecting on his Scarborough upbringing, Abel compared his childhood to a ‘dark hole.’  In a recent interview with The Guardian, The Weeknd recalls, “It was tough growing up where I was from. I got into a lot of trouble, got kicked out of school, moved to different schools and finally dropped out.”  He also revealed drugs were a crutch for him and at one point in time, was homeless.

 

 

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In 2015 while talking with Rolling Stone, Abel revealed, “It was amazing. No parents, we can do what we want, stay up as late as we want — like, literally for days.  We’d throw these sh***y parties and have girls over, and we’d try to make it celebratory, so we’d have balloons.”  The Weeknd’s debut album House of Balloons was named after one his Toronto residences – 65 Spencer Avenue in Parkdale.

 

 

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Congrats, The Weeknd!

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