Written by Ruby, 2021 Cohort
As we know, February has been known as Black History Month, and I’m going to celebrate one of my favourite music artists, a black Canadian singer called The Weeknd.
The Weeknd is my favourite singer-songwriter who is also a record producer. He was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada in 1990. He also speaks Ethiopian Amharic fluently because his parents are from Ethiopia. As he grew up under the influence of soul, quiet storm, hip-hop, funk, indie rock, and post-punk, his composition style is mainly like the disco music in the 70s and 80s, but it is also varied. The Weeknd quickly released his first three mixtapes after he entered the music industry in 2011.
Among all his songs, the songs I listen to the most are Starboy, Take My Breath and Blinding Lights. Starboy is his third studio album, which won the 60th Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Urban Album. And the single with the same name Starboy won number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles. In 2020, he released his fourth studio album After Hours, of which my favourite is the single Blinding Lights. Blinding lights broke the US Billboard record for the longest-running song, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 for 88 consecutive weeks. While retaining the style of the past, The Weeknd is also seeking new changes. For example, in the first three songs of the album After Hours, he added European experimental electronic music to alternative R&B styles, forming a wonderful combination. I also often recommend people to listen to his singles like Faith, Hardest to Love, After Hours, Save Your Tears.
One of the main reasons that I like him so much is that, before I listened to his songs, I usually listened to hip-hop music a lot. He expanded my music taste, and made me start to like R&B and disco music. Also, when mentioning black music artists, I immediately think about hip-hop, rap music, or Jazz, which can be considered as a stereotype. However, the Weekend changed my mental image of black artists in the music industry, and I’m also more willing to learn more about other black music artists. Another reason is that he is showing the industry and the world that black artists can be successful in the music industry without using aggressive language, or only making music genres about gangsters or street culture. Their music genre can be varied.
As US President Gerald Ford states that the public should “seize the opportunity to honour the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavour throughout our history”. I also see this black history month as the opportunity to understand and learn more about the meaning behind it as well as get to know more about the great artists in different fields.