Pitchfork · Sep 20, 2026
Photo: Brian Ziff via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
File No. 482374 · Adjudicated
The Weeknd
Musician — After Hours, Blinding Lights, Beauty Behind the Madness
Born
1990
Birthplace
METROPOLITAN TORONTO, ONTARIO
Citizenships
CA
Canadianness Score
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
5.0/ 5
Weighted across 2 scored criteria
Designation
Bleeds Maple Syrup 🍁Born, raised, and still says “out for a rip” unironically.
Scorecard
Path A — born on Canadian soilI. Origin
Born on Canadian soil — yes
METROPOLITAN TORONTO, ONTARIO
Canadian parentage — not scored
No Canadian parents on record
Citizenship on record — not scored
Automatic by birth
II. Residency
Formative years spent in Canada — yes
Raised — Ontario
Lived in Canada by choice — not scored
Residency on record as an adult
Worked or filmed in Canada — not scored
Credits filed north of the 49th
III. Cultural evidence — not scored
Section III is recorded for the file only. Birth on Canadian soil already settles the matter.
Publicly claims to be Canadian — not scored
Says so, out loud
Canada claims them back — not scored
Claimed, enthusiastically
Fun fact
Dropped out of Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute at 17 to pursue music, recording his early mixtapes in a cramped Toronto apartment.
The verdict
Born Abel Tesfaye in Scarborough, raised in the east end of Toronto, and still reps the city hard in his music and public persona. The 6ix claims him proudly, and he claims it right back — even named his record label XO after the Toronto slang.
Adjudicated by
The Standings Committee
Status
Final — appealable
In the news
All coverage →Related files
More from the files: Musician · Ontario
References — en.wikipedia.org