The Weeknd, Charli XCX, et Justin Bieber

Tesfaye dropped out of high school at age 17 and left his native Scarborough, Ontario for Toronto. He began his music career in 2009 by dropping tracks anonymously on YouTube. The Weeknd co-founded the record label XO in 2011 and released three mixtapes in the same year: House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.

The Weeknd’s mixtapes began to make noise as people responded to his unique R&B style and mysterious identity. His three mixtapes were downloaded eight million times, an astonishing audience for an artist without even a debut album to their name.

In 2012, The Weeknd signed with Republic Records and re-released his mixtapes as a compilation album, Trilogy. The album was met with positive reviews from critics, and it reached number four on the charts in the US and number five in Canada. At the end of 2012, The Weeknd embarked on a concert tour to promote Trilogy.

He dropped his debut studio album, Kiss Land, in 2013. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 95,000 copies in its first week.

After the release of Kiss Land, The Weeknd wrote a song for the film Fifty Shades of Grey. “Earned It” went on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance. The song was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In 2014, The Weeknd collaborated with Ariana Grande on her song, “Love Me Harder.” It climbed to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In September of that year, The Weeknd kicked off his first headlining tour at Barclays Center in New York.

In May 2015, The Weeknd released the second single from his upcoming album. “The Hills” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number twenty and climbed all the way to the top, making it his first number-one single. The full album, Beauty Behind the Madness, dropped that August and reached number one in Canada, Australia, the UK, and Norway. The Weekend promoted the album by headlining several summer music festivals, including Lollapalooza.

Beauty Behind the Madness was certified double platinum in the US, selling 1.5 million copies worldwide. It was the most-streamed album of the year and produced three platinum singles. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album.

Following this major success, The Weeknd embarked on his first arena tour. The Madness Fall Tour kicked off in his home country at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

At the end of 2016, The Weeknd released his third studio album, Starboy with an eponymous lead single featuring legendary French electronic duo, Daft Punk. After reaching number one in several countries, the song became the duo’s first chart-topping hit and The Weeknd’s third.

Debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, Starboy became The Weeknd’s second consecutive number-one record. It also took home a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album, making it The Weeknd’s second win in that category. The album was certified four-times platinum by the RIAA.

In support of the album, The Weeknd embarked on the Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour in early 2017. It kicked off at the Ericsson Globe in Sweden.

2018 was another big year for The Weeknd. In February, he collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on “Pray for Me”, a song from the Black Panther film soundtrack which peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The next month, Tesfaye released his first EP, My Dear Melancholy. Debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, it became The Weeknd’s third number-one album.

In November, The Weeknd released his first greatest hits album, The Weeknd in Japan, with songs from the setlists of his 2018 The Weeknd Asia Tour.

In 2020, The Weeknd released his fourth studio album, After Hours. The first two singles, “Heartless” and “Blinding Lights,” both peaked at number one on the Billboard 100 chart. “Blinding Lights” also went on to become the first song in history to hold a top-ten spot for an entire year.

To date, The Weeknd has sold over 75 million records and remains one of the top-selling artists of all time. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world. His work toward racial equality and food security has also earned him the title of Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Food Programme.

In January 2022, The Weeknd released his fifth studio album, Dawn FM. He is currently promoting it on his After Hours til Dawn Tour. Catch him live through November 27.

Her youthful electro spirit draws influence from the Ed Banger crowd, most notably the sassy girl-rapper, Uffie, but also the smutty, crashing electro-funk of Justice and SebastiAn. Her bratty, rebellious edge owes itself to hip-hop influences, the likes of Eminem and Lil’ Wayne, while her sound is unmistakably pop, paying homage to the roots of the MTV generation, Britney and Christina Aguilera.

She recorded her unofficial debut, “14”, at the eponymous age of 14 with a loan from her parents and released her first tracks on Myspace, eventually getting her the recognition of a guy known as “Chas”, who ran illegal warehouse raves where she played her first gigs with the unconditional support of her parents.

She then got signed to Atlantic Records, and released her first official EP “You’re The One”, featuring the title single, which made the Billboard charts.

Her official debut full-length on Atlantic, “True Romance” (2013) – its namesake being the Tarantino-penned 1993 film with Christian Slater – blended the brooding gothic synth-pop of the 1980s with the recalcitrant, twee girl-pop of the 1990s.

Her latest, “Sucker” (2014) takes her sound in a more pop-punk, alternative direction, with nods to Weezer, The Hives, and The Ramones as inspirations. The album is also marked with a star-studded production team, including Norwegian DJ, Cashmere Cat, and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij.

Charli is the heralded co-writer of “I Love It”, which was to be Swedish duo Icona Pop’s breakout hit. She wrote it upon the request of the duo’s producer, who sent her some audio tracks. She scrawled the lyrics with a kind of hell-raising pop-punkness that well-befitted the duo. It got them a No.7 slot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after featuring in an episode of US coming-of-age drama “Girls”. After the episode aired the track amassed a great number of digital downloads and sales.

Charli didn’t record the song herself due to a bizarre neurological condition called synaesthesia, the tendency for the senses to involuntarily cross over so it is possible to “smell” words and “taste” colours. In her case, she feels she is able to “see” sounds. She later reflected that “I Love It” didn’t have the right “look” to fit her work. Nevertheless she performed the song with Icona Pop at South by Southwest festival in Texas, US, where both acts were playing.

During elementary and high school, Bieber learned to play the piano, guitar, drums, and the trumpet. At age 12, after placing second in a local talent show singing Ne-Yo’s “So Sick,” Bieber’s mother, Mallette, began to upload the singer’s performances to YouTube.

In mid-2007, marketing executive Scooter Braun accidentally clicked on one of Bieber’s videos, which ultimately resulted in the young singer signing with Braun and R&B singer Usher’s Raymond Braun Media Group. Whilst still recording his full-length debut, the singer issued his first single “One Time” in July 2009. Reaching No. 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 and No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, the single catapulted Bieber to international success at the age of 15.

The EP My World followed in November 2009, spawning the singles “One Less Lonely Girl,” “Love Me,” and “Favorite Girl.” Following a host of high-profile TV appearances, the release was certified platinum in the U.S. and double platinum in Canada and the UK. Toward the tail end of 2009, Justin Bieber performed Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas” at the White House for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

Ahead of his album My World 2.0, Bieber released the smash hit single “Baby” featuring rapper Ludacris. Issued in March 2010, My World 2.0 topped the U.S. Billboard 200, making Bieber the youngest person since Stevie Wonder to reach the top spot, as well as the first act since the Beatles to have a debut album reach No. 1.

Spawning the singles “Never Let You Go,” “Eenie Meenie,” “Somebody to Love,” and “U Smile,” the My World 2.0’s R&B style earned positive reviews from critics and later a 2011 Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. The album’s success was not limited to the U.S. and Canada, and Bieber embarked on his “My World Tour” after the release to reach his international fan base.

The album My World Acoustic arrived in October 2010, featuring several acoustic covers of previous songs, followed by the 3-D music biopic Justin Bieber: Never Say Never in February 2011. Bieber’s Christmas-themed album Under the Mistletoe appeared in November 2011, once again topping the Billboard 200 and generating significant buzz.

Released in June 2012, Bieber’s second full-length album Believe marked a move away from his teen-pop audience and toward a more dance- and R&B-inspired style. With production from Diplo, Darkchild, and Max Martin, the album spawned the Top 10 hit singles “Boyfriend,” “As Long as You Love Me” featuring Big Sean, and “Beauty and a Beat” featuring Nicki Minaj. The album became the singer’s fourth No. 1 album and was followed once again by an acoustic album, entitled Believe Acoustic.

In October of 2013, Bieber announced to his fans that he would release a new track every Monday until Christmas Day, when his new film Justin Bieber’s Believe would come out — a sequel to his first film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. This round of singles kicked off with “Heartbreaker” followed by “All That Matters,” “Hold Tight,” and others.

The final release in the holiday series was “Confident,” with a special feature by Chance the Rapper. That day, Bieber also announced that all 10 songs would appear on an upcoming album Journals, on top of five other unreleased tracks. Those five additional tracks featured big names like Lil Wayne and Future, and the album was released to massive cheers from fans for exclusive purchase on iTunes.

February 2015 saw the release of “Where Are Ü Now,” featuring Jack Ü (a duo including Skrillex and Diplo). The track rose up to the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and even earned Bieber a Grammy. Yet even that success paled in comparison to his announcement of his fourth studio album Purpose, which he teased with a new single called “What Do You Mean?”

“What Do You Mean?” became Bieber’s first number one single in the U.S., and he set a Guinness World Record as the youngest solo male artist to debut at the Hot 100’s number one spot. The song reached the number one spot on iTunes within five minutes of its release. The third single from Purpose, “Love Yourself,” is an acoustic ballad with some of Bieber’s best lyrics and melodies yet. When Purpose came out on November 13, 2015, it debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 — a career-crowning moment for most, but the sixth album of Bieber’s to do so.

April 2017 saw the unexpected release of the remix “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, which featured Bieber singing in Spanish. This remix shook the music industry, rising to the top of charts worldwide and marking a merging of the Spanish- and English-listening markets.

2017 marked some of the most iconic collaborations yet in Bieber’s career, including an appearance on DJ Khaled’s single “I’m The One” with Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne. He also teamed up with BloodPop to release the single “Friends” in August of that year.

In 2019, Bieber surprised everyone at Coachella when he appeared on stage for the first time in two years. Less than a month later, he released a single with Ed Sheeran called “I Don’t Care,” which became a worldwide hit in a short time. On July 11, 2019, he featured on “Bad Guy,” a remix of the breakthrough hit by Billie Eilish.

In 2020, he released the docu-series Justin Bieber: Seasons on YouTube, which documented parts of his life less visible to the public until then: his marriage, his music, and his struggles with Lyme disease. It received over 32 million in the first week alone, breaking YouTube’s all-time records. Bieber followed this by announcing his fifth studio album Changes, which came out on Valentine’s Day 2020.

Since then, Bieber has released singles with Ariana Grande, Drake, and countless others — and also found time to record Freedom, an EP inspired by gospel music that came out on Easter 2021. He continues to break all-time records for Billboard music charts, Spotify, and other platforms worldwide. It’s hard to name a bigger superstar in the world today, and you have a chance to catch him in concert this year — don’t miss the opportunity.