“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Over 100 million people watched the #SuperBowl LV. After the commercials, the Halftime show is always a highlight. But I have to admit I didn’t know much about the artist and I had no clue about the weird facial bandages.
Abel Tesfaye is from Canada. He is the only child of Ethiopian immigrants. Tesfaye began his career in 2010 and has since nabbed 3 Grammys. He worked under the aliases of the Noise and Kin Kane before becoming “The Weeknd.” I love the name. It reminds me of when controversial NBA player Ron Artest changed his last name to World Peace. He reasoned, “No one is going to say, ‘I hate Word Peace.'”
Back to the bandages. The gauze came out to support his latest album. Tesfaye told Variety the symbol, “is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated.”
The Weeknd is committed to lopsiding the narrative. He’s sported artificial facial bruising at major events, wore a fully bandaged face to the AMAs, and posted a prostetically altered selfie on Instagram.
“I suppose you could take that being attractive isn’t important to me but a compelling narrative is.” says Tesfaye. Mark Twain would be proud.
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