- He has Ariana Grande to thank for connecting him with Swedish songwriter and record producer Max Martin. "Ariana [Grande] was kinda my foot in the door with Max [Martin], my chance to show him 'I can play this game,' y'know? But when we got in the room together, we didn't really connect as much," he explained. "Then someone invited him to a show I did at the Hollywood Bowl, and he saw 15,000 people singing along, and I think he was like, 'OK, there's something I'm not getting.' So we sat down again, and the first song we created was 'In the Night.'"
- Music saved his life. "I didn't know that I had a gift with music, but I was always singing. I was actually getting in trouble because I would sing in class — my poor mother, it became a real problem. I was really shy so I wasn't really singing to my friends or girls, but when I was maybe 13, somebody said, 'You actually have a pretty nice voice,'" he revealed. "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. I really thought film was gonna be my way out, but I couldn't really make a movie to feel better, you know? Music was very direct therapy; it was immediate and people liked it. It definitely saved my life . . . It's easier to talk about songs that are just about me; I don't like to talk about what I'm going through with other people."
- Despite the coronavirus outbreak, The Weeknd moved forward with releasing his After Hours album for his fans. "I cut that discussion off right away. Fans had been waiting for the album, and I felt like I had to deliver it. The commercial success is a blessing, especially because the odds were against me: [Music] streaming is down 10%, stores are closed, people can't go to concerts, but I didn't care. I knew how important it was to my fans," he said. "It's been amazing to see the real heroes in our world: health care workers, grocery store clerks, first responders. If I could do something even as small as taking people away from what's happening in the world for an hour, then what better time?"
Image Source: Getty / Kevin Winter