The Weeknd Hints That He Might Change His Stage Name To Just ‘Abel’

Canadian pop star The Weeknd has probably heard every iteration of every possible joke about his stage name by this point. After all, when you name yourself something as common as a pair of days on a calendar, there’s bound to be a little confusion if the context isn’t set up just so. I mean, word processors were red-lining his name for something like a year after he initially debuted. So it makes sense that he’d want to change it up after a little over a decade, as he hinted recently on Twitter.

It seems he was at least partially prompted by his fans on Twitter, who have taken to addressing him by his first name, Abel. And while his government name, Abel Tesfaye, would be more than serviceable in the search engine optimization department, he joked that he wanted to take it even further, removing his last name entirely. “You guys are hilarious,” he wrote. ” I feel like i should change my stage name to ABEL at this point lol. Maybe pull a YE and just legally change my name to ABEL. no last name. Like Madonna or Cher or Prince.”

However, he didn’t seem completely sold on the idea, either. “I don’t know it seems like a lot,” he noted. He did get a vote of confidence from noted fantastic stage name bearer John Legend, though. “ABEL is dope,” said the crooner, prompting The Weeknd to reply, “I’m tempted…”

Let’s face it, though: If he does change his name to just Abel, it’ll almost certainly take a while to get the masses to connect the old identity with the new one. Even Prince had trouble getting people to accept “The Artist” during his rights war with Warner Bros. Records in the ’90s. On the other hand, Mr. Tesfaye has blossomed into a big enough star that he’s one of the few folks who might be able to get away with it. After all, he’s appeared in animation multiple times, most recently on The Simpsons, and his After Hours Tour with Doja Cat will play stadiums instead of arenas. He’s about as big as a star can get — maybe even mononymously so.