Video will appear as you scroll through the story
The Weeknd · S5 E7
The Grammy Moment
Two Grammys, a worldwide tour, and the question: can The Weeknd stay this big?
February 15, 2016. The Staples Center in Los Angeles. Abel Tesfaye stands backstage at the 58th Grammy Awards holding two trophies, and somewhere in Scarborough his grandmother is watching on television.
Michael Jackson, Thriller (1983). The music video that turned pop into cinema and set the standard every crossover artist is measured against. By the time Abel won his Grammys, the Michael Jackson comparisons had followed him for a full year. This is the benchmark: not just a hit album, but a cultural moment so large it redefines what a pop star can be.
Thriller, Michael Jackson (1983)
Produced by Quincy Jones, "Thriller" was the title track of the best-selling album of all time, and the video directed by John Landis turned a pop single into a fourteen-minute horror film. The production fuses funk, rock, and horror-movie sound design in a way that no one had attempted before. Listen for Vincent Price's spoken-word section and the way the arrangement shifts from dance floor to graveyard: Jackson made darkness feel like entertainment, which is exactly the trick Abel learned to pull off on Beauty Behind the Madness.
Beauty Behind the Madness: The Final Score
From Anonymous to Arena
Five years. That is the distance between uploading three songs under a fake name and winning two Grammys. In that span, Abel went from sleeping on couches in Scarborough to headlining arenas on four continents. No major label debut single, no Disney Channel origin story, no famous parents. Just free mixtapes, an internet connection, and a voice dark enough to scare people and beautiful enough to keep them listening.
The Distance Traveled
Abel Tesfaye stood in the Staples Center press room holding two Grammy trophies. Four years earlier, he had been an anonymous voice on a free mixtape that music blogs could not even attribute to a real person. Now the Recording Academy was calling his name. The distance between those two moments is the entire story of Beauty Behind the Madness.
TAP TO REVEAL: What categories was BBTM nominated for at the Grammys?
The Question
Every artist who reaches this height faces the same fork in the road. You can make the same album again, chase the same sound, and hope the audience stays. Or you can burn it all down and start over. Abel had already done it once, walking away from the mixtapes to make Kiss Land, and from Kiss Land to make BBTM. The pattern was clear: Abel does not repeat himself.
Prisoner ft. Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd
The BBTM deep cut that pairs Abel with the one artist who shares his exact aesthetic: dark glamour, cinematic sadness, and a voice built for 2 AM. Lana Del Rey and Abel orbit the same emotional frequency on "Prisoner," trading verses about being trapped in a relationship that feels like a life sentence. It is the last word on an album that proved darkness and pop stardom can live in the same room.
Prisoner ft. Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd (2015)
Two of the most cinematic voices in modern pop on the same track. Abel and Lana trade perspectives on a toxic relationship with a mutual understanding that neither of them is the victim. The lyrics feel like a conversation between two people who know exactly how this ends.
Which album beat BBTM for Album of the Year at the 58th Grammys?
Abel has conquered pop. Two Grammys, a world tour, and three of the biggest singles of 2015. But the first thing he does when the tour ends is cut his hair, and the music video for what comes next opens with him literally killing The Weeknd.
0 XP earned this session
To be continued
Season 6: Starboy
Coming soon. Enter your email to get notified when new episodes drop.