The Weeknd is history: These musicians used to have different names

Although he rose to worldwide fame under the stage name The Weeknd, the Canadian R&B singer has now decided to return to his original birth name, Abel Tesfaye. As a reason, Tesfaye (30) stated in one that he was on a “cathartic path” that made it necessary to “kill The Weeknd” in order to “shed that skin and be reborn”. On May 15, 2023, he got down to business and populated his social media channels with the new old name. Other music productions should no longer run under the pseudonym The Weeknd in the future.

So far, so clear. But Abel Tesfaye is by no means the first musician to decide to make a new name.

Prince and the unspeakable symbol

The most famous example of this is probably Prince (1958-2016). He broke through in the ’80s under the name Prince, but changed his name to an icon after a falling out with his label. Since this could not be spoken or written, he was now dubbed “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince” by the media. After his contract with the label ended, he went back to his old name in 1999.

Personal Ye-sus

In 2021, rapper Kanye West (45) also changed his stage name and has been officially called Ye ever since. This name, which is certainly not accidentally reminiscent of the English pronunciation of Jesus, does not come as a complete surprise. His self-chosen nickname had long consisted of the last two letters of his previous first name, and his eighth studio album was also titled “Ye”.

Snoop and his doggys

A true name chameleon is Snoop Dogg (51). He started his career as Snoop Doggy Dogg, then renamed himself Snoop Dogg, but always had other nicknames such as Bigg Snoop Dogg or Dogg Father. The doggy variations were broken in 2009 when he chose a whole new name as a producer: Niggarachi. Three years later he changed his stage name to Snoop Lion and then, as a sign of a musical reorientation, to Snoopzilla. Despite this, he still releases albums as Snoop Dogg.

When the name is worth its weight in gold

Not all artists give up their names voluntarily. Santigold (46), for example, an American artist, was known as Santogold until 2009 – but lost a dispute with a jeweler and filmmaker named Santo Gold in court. After all, the press release was funny to read: “Change the graffiti on the bathroom wall, get your tattoo touched up, airbrush your t-shirt and change the name on the year-end lists: Santogold is now Santigold.”

FKA always works

Even FKA Twigs (35), musician, dancer and ex-girlfriend of Robert Pattinson (37), did not expect any competition when she called herself Twigs (“twigs”) because of her cracking joints. When it came out that there was already a band called “The Twigs”, they made the prince: The “FKA” in FKA Twigs probably stands for “Formerly Known As”.

Not every spelling prevails

JAY-Z (53) tried to make his name change as uncomplicated as possible. He first became known as Jay-Z, but dropped the hyphen from his name in 2013. However, it has been back in since 2017, and the rapper, producer and husband of Beyoncé (41) has been using capital letters since then. Theoretically. Because it hasn’t really caught on when you see the article or its English-language Wikipedia entry…

religious awakening

One could get the idea that only rappers change their names because of their egos or musicians because of the risk of confusion. But then there’s the transformation of British folk musician Yusuf Islam. Born Steven Demetre Georgiou, the musician began his career in the 1960s as Cat Stevens. After a near-death experience, he converted to Islam in the 1970s, discarded his stage name and changed his real name to Yusuf Islam (74).