The Weeknd was recently in the news because of the fact that he has announced that he is going to say goodbye to his stage name after his tour. On his social media, he has already changed his name to Abel Tesfaye, his birth name.

Since Tesfaye will not produce any music anymore under his stage name, we decided to write an extensive blog about the top 10 songs of The Weeknd. What became his top songs hits, and what songs are underexposed in the hit lists even though they should have been in there? Let’s dive into it!

1.      Blinding Lights

When you say The Weeknd, people will most certainly think of “Blinding Lights”, and not just because it is the go-to song for TikTok videos. The song is about the intoxication of a person and drunk driving. However, Blinding Lights is better known as an earworm, dance-friendly R&B song, and the Canadian singer’s first number 1 hit in the United Kingdom. We are still wondering why this song was the second single of his album After Hours, as the song became the most streamed song on Spotify in 2020 and a memorable song for the years after that.

2.      Starboy

Three years before the release of After Hours, The Weeknd released his album Starboy of which the title song became a number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Not surprisingly, The Weeknd collaborated with Daft Punk on the song, just as they did on the song “I Feel It Coming” with a similar sound to the tracks of Daft Punk. The Weeknd made the R N B sound, however, his own and created a unique song with “Starboy”. Many call Starboy the best song of The Weeknd, and we suspect that they soon became fans of the Canadian singer, but perhaps they then did not know that After Hours was yet to be conceived.

3.      Can’t Feel My Face

Even before Starboy was out in the world, Abel Tesfaye released the album Beaty Behind the Madness in 2015. The most known song of this album is “Can’t Feel My Face”. Perhaps, you have never really paid attention to the lyrics, but it is suspected that the song is about cocaine as the singer can’t feel his face and seems to mask this with the metaphor. Having said that, the sound of the song is compared to the sound of Michael Jackson, and it made Tesfaye immediately a popstar instead of a quite unknown R&B singer.

4.      Earned It

Just like “Can’t Feel My Face”, “Earned It” was listed on the album Beaty Behind the Madness. The Weeknd created the song for the film Fifty Shades of Grey, a project in which The Weeknd was already involved from the beginning. It set the tone for this career as a R&B artist evolving into a worldwide famous singer. Nevertheless, when you listen to the song, you will probably now immediately label the song as a characteristically The Weeknd song. Considering the Fifty Shades of Grey-vibe, however, the song is a perfect fit as the title song of the film.

5.      Die For You

Even though Tesfaye has a quite unique sound and knows how to combine R&B and electric pop perfectly, he does not distinguish himself from other artists when it comes to the themes of his songs: love. “Die For You” was also on the album Starboy and is about the pain and love Tesfaye feels for a person for whom he would die. Recently, The Weeknd released a version of the song on which he collaborated with Ariane Grande, a good friend of his since 2014. Because of this, the collaboration is not surprisingly, but we are more than happy that they decided to record the song together.

6.      I Feel It Coming

Although we already mentioned I Feel It Coming, the song is one of the best songs of the Weeknd and the result of a great collaboration with Daft Punk. The electropop sound in combination with Tesfaye’s R&B is just splendid and creates a fantastic melancholic melody that reminds us of Micheal Jackson again. Nevertheless, the song never became number one in the Billboard rankings, as it peaked at number 4. “I Feel It Coming” was part of the album Starboy and was released as a single on the 24th of November in 2016.

7.      Save Your Tears

The melancholic sound, the mystifying voice of Tesfaye and the repetitive synthesiser make “Save Your Tears” a great song for radio listening. The song was listed 11th on the album After Hours and is considered synth pop. Despite the success of the song, Tesfaye seemed to distance himself more than in other songs from his R&B song which made critics critical on the song. Others, however, see “Save Your Tears” as the best song of After Hours and honour Tesfaye for this over-the-top pop song which will soon be an earworm.

8.      In Your Eyes

We have now said it multiple times, but even more evidently in “In Your Eyes” Tesfaye sounds exactly as Michael Jackson. The mystifying melodies, Tesfaye’s sound, the authentic saxophone and tones of synth pop in this song make up the perfect recipe for a great hit on the radio. “In Your Eyes” was the third single on the After Hours album and was listed number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. We believe the song could have been listed way higher, but music will always be a subjective matter.

9.  How Do I Make You Love Me?

Another electropop, Daft Punk-like song is “How Do I Make You Love Me?”.  For the cover of album Dawn FM, The Weeknd transformed himself to an older version of himself, in which his hair is dyed grey and his face is given some wrinkles. Even though the lyrics of the song are not that strong, the sound of the song is catchy and it makes you want to listen to this song on repeat. We are sorry to see that The Weeknd seems to want to make music with a different sound under his birth name, but we are wondering if Tesfaye will really move away from his electric pop, R&B sound.

10. Popular

Although music critics have not yet commented on the most recently released song of The Weeknd, “Popular” is already listened to on a wide scale. Just like the song for the film Fifty Shades of Grey Tesfaye now wrote a song for his drama series The Idol on HBO. He collaborated with Playboi Carti and Madonna, and the series can be watched since the 22th of May 2023. The Weeknd said in an interview that he is honoured to work with Madonna as an “ultimate pop star”, even though the song is characteristically R&B.

What is the best song by The Weeknd for you?

That was a top 10 of the best songs of The Weeknd, with many songs from the After Hours and Starboy album, but be aware that the discography of The Weeknd dates back to 2011! Knowing that, which song or songs should have been on the top 10 of best songs of The Weeknd according to you and to what song can you listen to on repeat? We are curious to know. Want to ready more lists of top songs? We also wrote a blog about a top 5 popular Bruno Mars songs.