Singer The Weeknd had a strange first meeting with Taylor Swift after she spent the whole time petting his hair.
The 25-year-old has seen his star rise rapidly in the last year, thanks to hits including Earned It and Can’t Feel My Face. His unique hair style has also made him stand out from the crowd, and when his path crossed with fellow pop star Taylor Swift's, she seemed particularly fixated with his matted locks.
“The whole time she was talking, she was kind of like, petting my hair?” he recalled to Rolling Stone. “I think she was just drawn to it — she must have been a little gone off a few drinks. And of course I’m not going to be like, ‘Hey, can you stop?’ I mean, it felt good! But when she started petting my hair, that’s when I was like, ‘I definitely need a drink.’”
The Weeknd and Taylor have since become friends and she even invited the soulful singer to join her onstage during her 1989 World Tour stop in New Jersey in July (15) to perform a duet of Can't Feel My Face.
As well as having hits of his own, the star – real name Abel Tesfaye – has also worked closely with fellow Canadian Drake on his 2011 album Take Care. Abel handed over a number of tracks that were intended for his own mixtape, which was a hard decision, but in the end it all worked out for the best.
“I gave up almost half of my album,” he said. “It’s hard. I will always be thankful — if it wasn’t for the light he shined on me, who knows where I’d be. And everything happens for a reason.”
His success has come as a bit of a surprise to the star considering he was so self-conscious about his appearance when he was an aspiring singer.
“I was everything an R&B singer wasn't," he added. "I wasn't in shape. I wasn't a pretty boy. I was awkward as f**k. I didn't like the way I looked in pictures — when I saw myself on a digital camera, I was like, 'Eesh.'"
His insecurity has led him to keep interviews to a minimum, which was a particularly brave decision as a new artist wanting to break into the industry. For a long time, people didn’t know whether The Weeknd was a band or a solo artist and Abel was happy with that.
“If it backfired, I probably would have been doing interviews,” he said. “But people were kind of liking me being a f**king weirdo."
