The Weeknd has put months of retirement speculation to rest. During a recent stop on his record-breaking After Hours Til Dawn Stadium Tour, the superstar told fans he has no plans to step away from music, declaring that he’ll “be here forever.”
“I’ll never disappear. I love this too much to ever disappear,” Abel Tesfaye told the crowd. “I tested retirement a little bit, and I don’t like the way it feels. Imma be here forever with you.”
The remarks mark a notable change in tone after more than two years of public conversations about bringing the Weeknd era to a close. The statement arrives as his After Hours Til Dawn Stadium Tour continues to dominate stadiums across Europe before heading to Asia later this year. The global trek, which launched in 2022, has surpassed $1 billion in ticket sales, becoming the highest-grossing tour by a male solo artist while attracting millions of fans worldwide through its ambitious production, massive stage design and career-spanning setlist.
Retirement rumors intensified in the lead-up to Hurry Up Tomorrow, released on January 31, 2025. The album completed the After Hours trilogy and was widely presented as the possible farewell to the Weeknd persona. In interviews surrounding its release, Tesfaye described “The Weeknd” as a character he felt he had fully explored, admitting that the constant pursuit of commercial success had begun to feel like a never-ending cycle.
He previously pointed to his infamous 2022 SoFi Stadium performance—where he lost his voice midway through the show—as a defining moment that made him reconsider his future. Earlier interviews also hinted at eventually retiring the stage name in favor of releasing music simply as Abel Tesfaye. Around the release of the companion Hurry Up Tomorrow film in 2025, he acknowledged he was moving toward that transition but admitted it was difficult while continuing to tour.
Commercially, Hurry Up Tomorrow became another career milestone. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 490,500 equivalent album units, delivering the biggest opening week of Tesfaye’s career and cementing the trilogy as one of modern pop’s defining eras. Although fans interpreted the project as the conclusion of the Weeknd’s cinematic alter ego, his latest comments suggest the story is far from over.
Photo: Sebastien Nagy
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