It's a done deal! According to the Guinness Book of World Records, The Weeknd is the most popular musician on the planet.
The Weeknd Sets Two New Guinness Records
The 33-year-old Canadian, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, set two new records: he is the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify and he has the highest monthly listeners on the platform at 111.4 million. Also, this is not all.
"Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd is the most streamed song of all time on Spotify, with over 3.47 billion plays as of Monday. Blinding Lights has spent a total of 90 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 list, making it the longest-charting song of all time despite being overlooked by the Grammys. No one even comes close to The Weeknd's impressive streaming performance.
Shakira has the most listeners with 81.6 million, followed by Ariana Grande with 80.6 million, Taylor Swift with 80.2 million, and Rihanna with 78.5 million. Ed Sheeran is the closest male competitor to the Toronto native, with 77.5 million monthly listeners. The Weeknd's two new world records are the result of the massive success of his most recent track, the remix of Die For You featuring Ariana Grande. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming The Weeknd and Grande's sixth number-one single.
"Die For You" was originally featured on the 2016 album Starboy by the rapper. It is also Grande and The Weeknd's fourth collaboration, following 2014's Love Me Harder, 2020's Off the Table, and 2021's "Save Your Tears" remix. After 2015's Beauty Behind the Madness and 2021's After Hours, Starboy is the third of The Weeknd's albums to achieve multiple number-one singles.
Michael Jackson is the only other solo male artist to have multiple number-one hits from three albums, so The Weeknd is in good company. The rapper holds several Guinness World Records as well. In 2016, he received awards for the Most Streamed Album of 2015 and the Most Weeks Spent in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 by a male solo artist.
Settling Copyright Case
The news came after The Weeknd reached a deal with Suniel Fox and Henry Strange, two musicians who sued the Canadian pop star in 2021 for allegedly copying one of their works with his 2018 single "Call Out My Name."
According to the BBC, Fox and Strange's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case in Los Angeles federal court on Friday, alleging that the two musicians had reached a settlement with Tesfaye and his team and were "still in the process of formalizing, executing, and consummating" the agreement.
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Fox and Strange, who play as Epikker, claimed that the "lead guitar and vocal hooks" of Call Out My Name resembled their song Vibeking at the time the case was initially filed. Although Tesfaye disputed the allegations, the duo said they had evidence that the singer was familiar with the song beforehand. Fox and Strange reportedly sent Eric White, one of Tesfaye's collaborators, Vibeking in 2015; White apparently responded by stating that Tesfaye thought the song was "fire."
Fox and Strange allege that White later told them that Tesfaye had "listened and liked" Vibeking, but hadn't done anything with the tune; he then allegedly wrote them to indicate that he was going to tell Tesfaye that his crew had composed the track, rather than Fox and Strange.
Fox and Strange claim that they were never given credit or permission to utilize elements of their original music. Tesfaye has denied that Call Out My Name infringes on Fox and Strange's copyright, but he has never responded in depth to their charges.
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