5 Things You Need to Know About The Weeknd

Who is The Weeknd? So much mystique and secrecy surrounds this quickly rising superstar. And what happened to the third 'e' in his name?

Get to know him before signing up to win a trip to see him in Miami in December. You can sign up here.

According to a recent posting at axs.com, here are...

5 Things You Didn't Know About The Weeknd

1. He’s never been given a formal interview

The Weeknd loves to maintain a certain mystique about himself, so he doesn’t give his fans too much. Since emerging onto the music scene in 2010, The Weekend has declined participating in interviews because he doesn’t like to “spoon feed” his audience, he wrote in a rare online message.

2. He dropped out of high school at the age of 17

3. He hated his birth name, so he created a stage name

The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, hated his name growing up so he changed it to The Weekend because it sounded cool. However, as his star began to rise, he ran into a copyright infringement issue with another Canadian music band that went by the same name. So to resolve the issue, The Weekend became The Weeknd.

4. He is insecure about his looks

Even though he is a famous musician, The Weeknd hates doing things that normal musicians are required to do, like taking pictures.

"In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures,” he told Complex. "Like, crop me out of this picture right now. I was very camera shy ...The whole 'enigmatic artist' thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me. It reminded me of some villain s---. But you can't escape the Internet.”

5. He never left Canada until he was 21

Prior to becoming an established musician, The Weeknd—who is a Canada native—never left his home country until he was 21 years old. He describes himself as a “city cat” who enjoyed growing up in Canada.