Canadian singer The Weeknd had tongues wagging on Monday (May 15) after he updated his social media pages with his real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, which is said to be part of the singers cathartic journey.

The Blinding Lights singer shared in an interview with W Magazine that he is on a journey to ‘Kill The Weekend.’

“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he said. “It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”

The Weeknd’s musical debut began in 2009 when he started to release his music anonymously on YouTube.

Over the years, he has gained musical traction through his unconventional music production and artistic reinventions that many fans have come to love.

He has won four Grammy Awards, twenty Billboard Music Awards and six American Music Awards.

The singer is known for hits such as Starboy, Call Out My Name and The Hills.