The Weeknd

Tesfaye started uploading music anonymously in 2009, co-founded XO, and released three mixtapes in 2011 that he compiled into Trilogy the next year. His debut album Kiss Land arrived in 2013, but it was the pivot toward pop on Beauty Behind the Madness and Starboy - both topping the Billboard 200, both spawning number-ones like "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills" - that turned him into a commercial force. In 2020 he opened a trilogy with After Hours, a dream-pop departure that launched "Blinding Lights" and made him the first artist to pass 100 million monthly Spotify listeners. Dawn FM and Hurry Up Tomorrow followed in 2022 and 2025, closing the sequence. His After Hours til Dawn Tour became the highest-grossing run by a male soloist in history, and by 2025 he was the year's highest-paid musician - eight diamond singles, 4 Grammys, and a catalog that redefined what R&B could sound like in the streaming age.