How The Weeknd Got Into Guinness World Records (And 5 Classics To Celebrate It)

The Weeknd is a true Midas king: what he touches turns to gold. Indeed, records. And today this immeasurable prodigy of his is also certified by the Guinness World Records: the Canadian artist is in fact the most popular in the world, achieving two very important records.

Because The Weeknd’s latest record is sensational

The Weeknd is the singer with the highest number of monthly listeners on Spotify, 111.4 million (data updated from GWR as of 20 March 2023) and the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Before him, there was only the King of Pop: Michael Jackson. But the records, in fact, The Weeknd was already used to, considering that in 2016 he had already been awarded by the GWR for the most streamed album on Spotify in 2015 and for the most consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 by a solo artist.

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Who are the challengers of The Weekend

A clear victory for The Weeknd, also considering that Miley Cyrus is ahead of her with around 30 million listeners. And if the author of Flowers has 82.4 million, followed by other big names in world music: Shakira with 81.6 million, Ariana Grande with 80.6 million, Taylor Swift with 80.2 million, Rihanna with 78, 5 million and Ed Sheeran who stops at 77.5 million (a curiosity, in this regard: his blinding lightsmost streamed track on Spotify with over 3.4 billion streams as of February 2023, surpassed previous queen Shape of You Ed Sheeran’s own).

What is the secret of his success

It would go without saying that The Weeknd’s biggest secret to being so well-regarded around the world is music. After all, The Weeknd has always been a natural automatic generator of hits, which lend themselves to any context: whether it’s songs to listen to on Spotify in the strict sense or the soundtrack of a successful commercial or a story on social networks . Certainly, among the top songs, one is certainly very important for having contributed to scoring this colossal record. It’s about Die for you with Ariana Grande (this is the fourth collaboration for the two, considering already Love Me Harder, Off the table and the remix of Save Your Tears) that despite being contained in the 2016 album Starboy, only today has it known global success. But there are many songs to recover and save in playlists: let’s retrace The Weeknd’s memorable career in five of his unforgettable pieces, before listening to him live again in Italy, with two unmissable dates in Milan at the La Maura Hippodrome on Wednesday 26 July (sold out) and Thursday 27 July.

And here are 5 songs to celebrate it:

Save your tears

This eighties-inspired and synth-based single seems to have been dedicated to an ideal ex whom the artist invites to reflect on past relationships, also providing comfort and emotional support. The song allowed him to win the second Global Digital Single Award, an award given by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry to the best-selling single in the world of the last 12 months. The first time was with blinding lightsrepeated the following year thanks to 2.15 billion streaming listeners.

Blind lights

What happens when you’re extremely euphoric, you’re racing in your car at night because you can’t wait to meet the person who drives you crazy? In the case of The Weeknd this song happens to be born. Which perfectly describes a crazy nocturnal race, perhaps after having drunk too much, to reach the object of your desire, illuminated by the night lights of the street.

Starboy

This song, probably one of The Weeknd’s best known, has an exceptional featuring: Daft Punk. By many it has been understood as a sort of manifesto, a moment of self-celebration by the artist who does not hesitate to list all the assets he owns. Cars, luxury items, women. A real man of great fame, indeed, to put it with him, a perfect starboy.

Can’t feel my face

Anxiety, lack of self-control, a toxic relationship. Once again The Weeknd shows the darker side of him. And it is not easy to be able to understand whether this lack of perception of one’s face is ideally linked to an exhausting relationship with a woman or, as some have hypothesized, to a hypothetical relationship with drugs. The certainty is that, once again, the recreated atmospheres are incredibly dreamlike, dark, extremely dark.

The hills

Another obscure song, of which even the recipient is unknown. It seems that the artist is dedicating it to a woman, probably engaged, with whom he seems to have a relationship that she deliberately keeps clandestine. It seems, however, that her affection for her in her employ led him to become attached to her in an unhealthy way and, probably, in some way to depend on her emotionally.