Only five years ago, Tesfaye, 25, was folding shirts at a Toronto outlet of American Apparel and posting audio tracks on YouTube. But each time stardom beckoned, Abel Tesfaye – a native of the dreary Toronto suburb of Scarborough, who sings, writes and produces as the Weeknd – seemed to demur. F or several years, an introverted Canadian singer of Ethiopian descent, known to R&B lovers for his plaintive voice and atmospheric, after-party, comedown groove, has been on the cusp of becoming music’s next big thing.
