The Weeknd Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
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
Abel Tesfaye has said he is thinking of retiring the Weeknd persona while continuing to record music.
Q 02In which Toronto suburb was The Weeknd raised by his mother and grandmother?
Scarborough
Scarborough got half a million Canadian dollars from him in 2020, a gift to its hospital network's COVID-19 relief fund.
Q 03Why is 'Weeknd' spelled without the second 'e'?
A Canadian band owned the name
A Canadian band owned the name 'the Weekend', so he cut a letter; the word marks the weekend he left home at 17 and never went back.
Q 04Which star's blog first pushed The Weeknd's anonymous YouTube songs to a wide audience?
Drake
Drake's OVO blog posted the songs, though The Weeknd says Drake's manager was the one vouching for him, not yet Drake himself.
Q 05Which mixtape closed out 2011, the year The Weeknd began with House of Balloons?
Echoes of Silence
Echoes of Silence opens with a cover of Michael Jackson's 'Dirty Diana', listed only as 'D.D.'; Pitchfork called his vocal an eerily accurate copy of Jackson's.
Q 06How was House of Balloons originally released on March 21, 2011?
Free of charge through XO
Free of charge through XO, it could sample Aaliyah's 'Rock the Boat'; the paid 2012 version dropped that sample and it only returned in 2021.
Q 07What is the motto of The Weeknd's XO label?
'XO 'Til We Overdose'
'XO 'Til We Overdose' feeds a fan theory that XO stands for ecstasy and OxyContin rather than hugs and kisses.
Q 08What was the 2012 major-label compilation of The Weeknd's 2011 mixtapes called?
Trilogy
Trilogy sold songs fans already had, plus three bonus tracks, and still entered the US album chart at number four.
Q 09What was The Weeknd's debut studio album, released in September 2013?
Kiss Land
Kiss Land missed a number-one debut by fewer than 3,000 copies, edged out by Keith Urban's 'Fuse'.
Q 10'Earned It', The Weeknd's Oscar-nominated song, was recorded for which film's soundtrack?
Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson also shot the song's video, which features the film's lead, Dakota Johnson.
Q 11Which 2015 song was The Weeknd's first Hot 100 number one, drawing comparisons to Michael Jackson?
'Can't Feel My Face'
'Can't Feel My Face' got so big that Tom Cruise lip-synced it on network TV, though many listeners hear its lyric as being about cocaine.
Q 12Which Swedish hitmaker co-wrote and produced The Weeknd's first number one and later 'Blinding Lights'?
Max Martin
Max Martin came in after The Weeknd asked his label for help making hits; their first job together was a half-finished song the label sent over for him to rewrite.
Q 13Which rapper produced The Weeknd's 2015 song 'Tell Your Friends'?
Kanye West
Q 21Which singer joined The Weeknd on the 2021 remix of 'Save Your Tears'?
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande's remix lifted the song from number six to number one in a single week, giving both singers their sixth Hot 100 chart-topper.
Q 22Which music legend wrote The Weeknd's 2020 Time 100 tribute, calling 'Blinding Lights' the year's best pop single?
Elton John
Elton John already had a link to him: the After Hours track 'Scared to Live' borrows from 'Your Song'. He wrote that, like Prince, The Weeknd marches to his own beat.
Q 23The Weeknd reportedly put $7 million of his own money into which performance?
His Super Bowl halftime show
Kanye West later posted his own take on the same beat online under the title 'When I See It'.
Q 14Which electronic duo features on the title track of The Weeknd's album Starboy (2016)?
Daft Punk
Daft Punk had never topped the Hot 100 before; even 'Get Lucky' stalled at number two for weeks in 2013.
Q 15In which 2019 film did The Weeknd make his acting debut, playing himself?
Uncut Gems
Uncut Gems cast him as his own younger, still-underground self, in a wig of his old hair, and his character gets into a fight with Adam Sandler's.
Q 16'Blinding Lights' was first teased in November 2019 in a commercial for which car brand?
Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz cast him in an advert for its electric EQC, in which he tells the car to play his new song.
Q 17Which Billboard Hot 100 record did 'Blinding Lights' break in August 2021?
Most weeks on the chart
Most weeks on the chart: it passed the 87 of Imagine Dragons' 'Radioactive' and finished on 90, though only four of those were spent at number one.
Q 18'Blinding Lights' replaced which older hit as Billboard's best-performing Hot 100 song of all time?
'The Twist'
'The Twist' had earned the title by climbing to number one in two separate chart runs, in 1960 and again in 1962.
Q 19Which awards gave After Hours no nominations at all, prompting The Weeknd to boycott them?
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards shut out both the album and 'Blinding Lights'; he called the process corrupt and said he would stop submitting his music.
Q 20Which veteran instrumentalist joined The Weeknd for a 2020 remix of 'In Your Eyes'?
Kenny G
Kenny G first played the song's saxophone solo live with him on the Time 100 broadcast, and the studio remix followed weeks later.
His Super Bowl halftime show already had its production costs covered by the organisers, as usual; he added the $7 million himself to get the show he had pictured.
Q 24Which actor narrates The Weeknd's 2022 album, alongside Quincy Jones and Josh Safdie?
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey was his Los Angeles neighbour; the two became friends after finding they could see each other's homes through their telescopes.
Q 25Which lead single from The Weeknd's fifth album was first previewed in a Tokyo Olympics promo?
'Take My Breath'
'Take My Breath' was due to have its video shown before IMAX screenings of The Suicide Squad, but it was reportedly pulled over fears its strobe lighting could trigger seizures.
Q 26Which 2022 album by The Weeknd sits in the middle of the three-album arc that Hurry Up Tomorrow completes?
Dawn FM
Dawn FM replaced a bleaker pandemic album he scrapped as 'emotionally detrimental'; he pictured its listener as dead and stuck in traffic on the way to the light.
Q 27What on-stage event in 2022 partly inspired The Weeknd's Hurry Up Tomorrow?
He lost his voice mid-concert
He lost his voice mid-concert in front of a packed SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and had to walk off; the cause was psychological stress rather than any injury.
Q 28Which electronic group teamed with The Weeknd on the 2021 single 'Moth to a Flame'?
Swedish House Mafia
Swedish House Mafia went on to share his headline slot at Coachella 2022, booked with about two weeks' notice after the original headliner pulled out.
Q 29Which actress co-stars with The Weeknd in the 2025 film Hurry Up Tomorrow?
Jenna Ortega
Jenna Ortega plays Anima, a troubled fan who ties his character to a hotel bed, then dances to 'Blinding Lights' and picks its lyrics apart.
Q 30In the HBO series The Idol, The Weeknd played Tedros, described as a sleazy nightclub owner and what?
Cult leader
Cult leader Tedros survived a creative overhaul in which the first director, Amy Seimetz, left mid-shoot; HBO cancelled the show after a single five-episode season.