This Weeknd trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and follows Abel Tesfaye from Scarborough, Ontario to the top of the world. It covers where the name (and its missing 'e') came from, the anonymous YouTube uploads and the free 2011 mixtapes, the founding of XO, Kiss Land, the Fifty Shades ballad that earned him an Oscar nomination, and the run of number ones from 'Can't Feel My Face' to 'Starboy' with Daft Punk. Then it hits the After Hours era - 'Blinding Lights' rewriting the Hot 100 record books, the red suit and bandages, the Super Bowl LV halftime show - and everything since: Dawn FM's purgatory narrated by Jim Carrey, the HBO flop The Idol, the record-breaking After Hours til Dawn tour, and Hurry Up Tomorrow, the album and film he has hinted may end the Weeknd persona altogether. About a third of the questions are easy for casual listeners; the rest are for the XO faithful. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is The Weeknd's real name?
Abel Tesfaye
His middle name Makkonen is an unusual spelling of the Ethiopian name Makonnen, possibly a typo that stuck.
Q 02In which Toronto suburb was The Weeknd raised by his mother and grandmother?
Scarborough
His parents, Ethiopian immigrants, separated shortly after his birth; he grew up speaking Amharic.
Q 03Why is 'Weeknd' spelled without the second 'e'?
A Canadian band owned the name
The Canadian pop-rock band the Weekend already had the name.
Q 04Under what YouTube username did Tesfaye anonymously upload 'What You Need' and 'The Morning' in December 2010?
xoxxxoooxo
He had met producer Jeremy Rose at a party that year; Rose received production credits on their early songs.
Q 05Which three mixtapes did The Weeknd release in 2011?
House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence
He has named the metal band Deftones as an influence on all three.
Q 06How was House of Balloons originally released on March 21, 2011?
Free of charge through XO
It was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize; Doc McKinney and Illangelo were its primary producers.
Q 07What is the motto of The Weeknd's XO label?
'XO 'Til We Overdose'
He co-founded it in 2011 with managers Wassim Slaiby and Amir Esmailian and creative director La Mar Taylor; 'XO' may nod to ecstasy and oxycodone.
Q 08What was the 2012 compilation that packaged the three mixtapes for a major label called?
Trilogy
Released on November 13 via Republic Records, it added three new tracks to remixed and remastered versions of the mixtapes.
Q 09What was The Weeknd's debut studio album, released in September 2013?
Kiss Land
It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 95,000 copies sold in its first week.
Q 10'Earned It', The Weeknd's only Oscar-nominated song, was recorded for which film's soundtrack?
Fifty Shades of Grey
It peaked at number three, his first top-five hit, and won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance.
Q 11Which 2015 song was The Weeknd's first Hot 100 number one, drawing comparisons to Michael Jackson?
'Can't Feel My Face'
Rolling Stone named it the best song of 2015, and it went diamond; 'The Hills' followed it to number one.
Q 12Which Swedish hitmaker co-wrote and produced his first number one and later 'Blinding Lights'?
Max Martin
The Weeknd has called him 'literally the best of friends', something he says he does not do with many people.
Q 13How many first-week units did Beauty Behind the Madness earn debuting at number one in 2015?
412,000
Kanye West wrote and produced 'Tell Your Friends' on it; the album won the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Q 21Which guest features on the deluxe edition of After Hours?
Ariana Grande
The standard edition has no guests at all; the remixes edition adds Chromatics and Lil Uzi Vert.
Q 22The Weeknd headlined the Super Bowl LV halftime show in 2021, becoming the first what to do so?
Canadian solo artist
The show was in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium and produced by Roc Nation; his dancers wore face bandages in the After Hours style.
Q 23How much of his own money did The Weeknd reportedly put into the Super Bowl LV halftime show?
$7 million
The performance drew slightly more viewers than the game itself and lifted his catalog streams 42% over the two days.
Q 14Which robot-helmeted electronic duo features on the title track of Starboy (2016)?
Daft Punk
It was the duo's only Hot 100 number one and The Weeknd's third; they also appear on the album's closer 'I Feel It Coming'.
Q 15In which 2019 film did The Weeknd make his acting debut, playing himself?
Uncut Gems
It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival; the Safdie brothers' Josh Safdie later narrated on Dawn FM.
Q 16'Blinding Lights' was first teased in November 2019 in a commercial for which car brand?
Mercedes
The ad showed him driving an EQC SUV and asking the car to play his new song; the single arrived two days after 'Heartless'.
Q 17How many weeks did 'Blinding Lights' spend on the Billboard Hot 100, a then-record for a solo artist?
90
It was the first song ever to spend a full year in the top ten, and Billboard named it the chart's best-performing song of all time in November 2021.
Q 18'Blinding Lights' displaced which 1960 hit as Billboard's best-performing Hot 100 song of all time?
'The Twist'
Chubby Checker's song had held the title; 'Blinding Lights' is also the first track to pass four and five billion Spotify streams.
Q 19How many first-week units did After Hours sell, on its way to his fourth straight number-one album?
444,000
It became the most-streamed R&B album of all time, overtaking his own Starboy.
Q 20Which of these singles is NOT from After Hours?
'Take My Breath'
'Take My Breath' launched Dawn FM in a partnership with NBC's Olympic coverage in August 2021.
Q 24Which actor narrates the 2022 album, alongside Quincy Jones and Josh Safdie?
Jim Carrey
The Weeknd described the album as a reflection of purgatory; Tyler, the Creator and Lil Wayne guest.
Q 25Which 2022 single peaked highest for him that year, reaching number six on the Hot 100?
'Take My Breath'
He first announced the album was complete on his Apple Music 1 show Memento Mori in October 2021.
Q 26Which 2022 album sits in the middle of the three-album arc that Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) completes?
Dawn FM
After Hours (2020) opened it; he has hinted this may be his last album under the Weeknd name.
Q 27What on-stage event in 2022 partly inspired Hurry Up Tomorrow?
He lost his voice mid-concert
Development of the companion film began that September after psychological stress caused the voice loss.
Q 28Which of these artists does NOT appear on the standard edition of Hurry Up Tomorrow?
Swedish House Mafia
Swedish House Mafia only appear on the bonus edition; Anitta, Justice, Travis Scott, Florence and the Machine and Future are also on the standard cut.
Q 29Who directed the 2025 film Hurry Up Tomorrow, co-starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan?
Trey Edward Shults
Lionsgate released it in May 2025; it was widely called a vanity project and grossed only about $7 million.
Q 30In the HBO series The Idol, The Weeknd played Tedros, described as a sleazy nightclub owner and what?
Cult leader
Sam Levinson took over directing from Amy Seimetz mid-shoot; the show premiered at Cannes, was widely panned and cancelled after one season.