HOT 100 FESTIVAL The Weeknd's 14 Most Priceless Music Moments

It’s rare in the digital age for any artist to truly cultivate mystique. And yet, for a few months in late 2010 and early 2011, Abel Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd, was R&B’s international man of mystery. Before his trilogy of free mixtapes set him on an unlikely path to pop stardom -- one that’s culminated this summer with the smash “Can’t Feel My Face” -- Tesfaye was a young Canadian of Ethiopian descent with a sensual voice and a skewed take on soulful slow jams.



With woozy, hallucinatory songs about drugged-up, guilt-ridden, hedonistic sex, The Weeknd invited listeners into a shadowy world where pleasure and pain -- both physical and psychological -- were never far apart.



Fast-forward to the summer of 2015, and The Weeknd is a mainstream sensation. On July 25, he held down the top three spots on the R&B charts, building big-time buzz for Beauty Behind the Madness, the sophomore album he’ll drop on Aug. 28, just days after playing Billboard's inaugural Hot 100 Festival at New York's Nikon at Jones Beach Theater. As Tesfaye gets ready to rock alongside fellow headliners Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, and Skrillex, we look back at the singer, songwriter, and producer’s most priceless music moments.

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March 21, 2011: Abel Tesfaye introduces the Weeknd with the House of Balloons mixtape. In late 2010, a series of creepy-sexy R&B jams credited to The Weekend began surfacing on YouTube. That led to some major online buzz and big-ups from folks like Drake, all of which set the stage for House of Balloons, a nine-song mixtape released for free via Tesfaye’s website. “You don’t know what’s in store,” Tesfaye croons on opener “High for This,” aptly describing the unsettling sensual sounds that would get him long-listed for Canada’s prestigious Polaris Prize.



August 18, 2011: The Weeknd returns with Thursday, his next episode. Among those to champion Abel’s early output was Drake, who shows up on “The Zone,” a highlight of Thursday, The Weeknd’s second free nine-song mixtape. As with its predecessor, Thursday dealt in dark pleasures and pillowy textures, earning Abel further acclaim from both taste-making music sites and mainstream mags.



December 21, 2011: With Echoes of Silence, The Weeknd ends his trilogy in dramatic fashion. The last of Tesfaye’s three freebies opens with a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” and ends with the title track, a pleading piano ballad on which Abel begs, “Don’t you leave my little life.” The stunning set earned Tesfaye his second consecutive Polaris Music Prize long-list nomination.



April 16, 2012: The Weeknd makes U.S. live debut at Coachella. Going into the 2012 festival season, some had to wonder whether The Weeknd’s brand of PBR&B -- the syrupy type of soul music favored by Pabst Blue Ribbon-swilling indie-rock fans -- would translate to giant outdoor spaces. It did, as Tesfaye soundtracked the desert sunset with his unique brand of sensual, R&B drama and performed to one of the festival’s biggest audiences.

More Priceless Moments: Justin Bieber | Nicki Minaj | Skrillex

November 13, 2012: After signing with a major, The Weeknd drops Trilogy. Although most of the music had already been available for free, Trilogy -- a compilation comprising remastered versions of The Weeknd’s three EPs, plus a trio of bonus tracks -- topped the R&B charts and climbed all the way to No. 4 on the Billboard 200. While lead single “Wicked Games” stalled at No. 53 on the Hot 100, the three-disc set spawned memorable videos for both that song and “The Zone,” which featured a cameo from Drake, a seductive blonde in lingerie, and lots of colorful balloons.



September 10, 2013: The Weeknd releases his proper debut album, Kiss Land. The jump to Republic Records did little to change Tesfaye’s sound. Fueled by the usual mix of sex and dread, Kiss Land debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and topped the R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart. The lone guest appearance came from buddy Drake, who turns up on “Live For,” a somber club anthem that makes bottle-service living sound like kind of a drag.



November 15, 2013: The Weeknd’s star burns brighter thanks to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack. Tesfaye played a major role in the musical companion to this Hollywood blockbuster, contributing The Weeknd tune “Devil May Care” and singing on pop oddball Sia’s “Elastic Heart.” Neither was a major hit, but the soundtrack soared to No. 5 on the Billboard 200, introducing young fantasy readers to Tesfaye’s yearning, burning vocal stylings.



February 15, 2014: The Weeknd celebrates Valentine’s Day with a Beyonce remix. In early 2014, everybody and their mother was remixing Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love,” but no one did it quite like Tesfaye. His was basically a cover, since he replaces Beyonce’s vocals with his own, singing the song from a man’s POV.

June 26, 2014: The Weeknd rules the season with quickie fall tour. Hot on the heels of “Often,” his first new tune in some time, The Weeknd announced the “King of the Fall” tour, a four-date arena swing kicking off at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Joining him for the trek was R&B singer Jhene Aiko and Schoolboy Q, the bubbling-up rapper who rhymed along with Rick Ross on the official “Often” remix.



September 30, 2014: The Weekend helps Ariana Grande hit the top 10. File this under win-win: By working with Swedish pop uber-producer Max Martin (among others) in writing and producing “Love Me Harder,” a No. 7 hit for young R&B star Ariana Grande, Tesfaye notched his first Top 10 single and took another step closer to crossover success. Grande, meanwhile, earned the respect of listeners who’d usually dismiss the music of cat-ear-clad cuties such as herself. Everyone else got a great pop song to vibe to in the fall of 2014.

Beauty Behind The Madness Will Feature Ed Sheeran & Lana Del Rey

December 23, 2014: The Weeknd earns his first Top 5 hit with “Earned It.” If any pop singer was suited for the soundtrack to the kinky, much-talked-about film 50 Shades of Grey, it was The Weeknd. His “Earned It” was the disc’s first single, and it climbed all the way to No. 3 -- Tesfaye’s highest placement to that point.



May 27, 2015: “The Hills” offers a preview of Tesfaye’s sophomore LP, reaches No. 10 on the Hot 100. Accompanied by a nightmarish video in which Tesfaye stumbles away from a car crash just before his smashed-up ride bursts into flames, “The Hills” marked a post-50 Shades return to the chilling sounds of The Weeknd’s previous recordings. The tune became his third straight Top 10 pop hit and landed at No. 5 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.



June 8, 2015: The Weeknd releases “Can’t Feel My Face,” catches fire as never before. The Weeknd’s entry into the 2015 “song of summer” contest is another Max Martin collabo with a cool Michael Jackson-style vocal and a beat that thumps instead of crawls. A few weeks after the single dropped, Tesfaye unveiled the video, a David Lynchian clip that finds the heatseeking singer literally catching fire and rocking a club while engulfed in flames. The infectious track topped the Hot R&B /Hip-Hop Songs chart and went to No. 2 on the Hot 100.



July 25, 2015: The Weeknd becomes the first artist to hold down the top three spots on the R&B Songs chart. Not even Michael Jackson managed to go 1-2-3 on the R&B chart -- an incredible feat Tesfaye pulled off thanks to the ubiquity of “Can’t Feel My Face” and the enduring popularity of “Earned It” and “The Hills.” The hat trick bodes quite well for Beauty Behind the Madness, the sophomore LP announced via twitter on July 9.

Buy tickets for Billboard's Hot 100 Fest, featuring The Weeknd and more, at ticketmaster.com.