The Weeknd surpasses Justin Bieber as most-streamed artist on Spotify
The Weeknd had a triumphant weekend.
The Grammy winner, real name Abel Tesfaye, surpassed fellow Canadian artist Justin Bieber as the No. 1 global artist on Spotify on Saturday, amassing 85.6 million monthly listeners on the digital music platform. (That number has since gone up at time of publication.)
Bieber previously held the coveted record, amassing $83.3 million last August. The feat comes after the Weeknd released his fifth studio album Dawn FM, a follow-up to 2020's After Hours, on Jan. 7. Following its release, the album dominated the Spotify charts as the top album around the globe and in the U.S.
The album features collaborations with Tyler, the Creator and Lil Wayne, who both offer guest vocals, as well the Weeknd's good friend and neighbor Jim Carrey, who narrates and serves as DJ of the album's namesake radio station. Prolific producer Quincy Jones and the Weeknd's Uncut Gems co-director Josh Safdie offer spoken word contributions.
In her B+ review, EW's Maura Johnston contends that the album's "sonics are arresting enough to put aside any concerns about lyrical existentialism and surrender to the power of its star-studded hooks and world-dominating synths." She writes, "Dawn FM might be just shy of summoning the truly divine, but its best moments provide enough blinding light to counter the increasingly enveloping gloom of 2022."
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