History YMMV / TheWeeknd

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: "Earned It"'s runaway success on radio was completely unexpected, as it was rather unlike anything heard on pop radio. Additionally, the song was on the ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' soundtrack and looked like it would be dubiously overshadowed by another cut from the soundtrack, the cleaner and more radio-friendly "Love Me Like You Do" by the much more established Music/EllieGoulding. The Weeknd's song wound up being the only one with an Oscar nomination between the two.

* FirstInstallmentWins: ''House of Balloons'' gets the most critical acclaim of everything he's released. There are a few factors: the universally praised songwriting ("High For This" and "Wicked Games" still get the biggest reception at gigs), the confidence of the atmosphere and general aesthetic, its role in establishing alternative R&B as a genre along with Music/FrankOcean, plus the deliberate mystery cultivated around it - when it first came out, people assumed The Weeknd was a band, or even Drake producer Noah "40" Shebib.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: During [[https://youtu.be/SsRXJnzas2s a live performance for Vevo]], he performed "Starboy"; at first, he did the clean version of the song ("main main out of your league" instead of "main bitch"), but after he gave the mic to the crowd, who sang the normal version ("side bitch out of your league"), he decided to roll with it.
** "Here We Go Again" on ''Dawn FM'' has some fun with the sound design; when Abel sings the lyric "And you didn't expect to fall for me once you got this dick" [[AwesomeEgo it's followed by loud cheering and applause]].

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Not that there was really any doubt before, but Jim Carrey's performance as the DJ on ''Dawn FM'' was met with [[https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/the-weeknd-dawn-fm-jim-carrey-dj.html immediate acclaim]], with his spoken word coda "Phantom Regret by Jim" being considered one of the best parts of the album.

* MisaimedFandom: As with most music that features copious drug abuse and an UnreliableNarrator, there's a certain subset of the fandom that takes the whole thing at face value. Abel himself lampshades this trope in "Reminder", talking about how he was nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for "Can't Feel My Face"!

''I'm like: "Goddamn bitch, I am not a teen choice"''\\
''"Goddamn bitch, I am not a bleach boy"''

* SignatureSong: For some time, it was "Can't Feel My Face" (with "Earned It", "The Hills", "Starboy" and "I Feel It Coming" not far behind), but "Blinding Lights" has likely usurped it, given it has the distinction of being seen by many as the SignatureSong of 2020 itself, as it was the biggest hit song released before the COVID-19 pandemic and remained near the top of the charts for the remainder of the year, even after other hit songs would see release.

** The industrial drums of "Belong to the World" got some attention for their uncanny resemblance to the drums in Music/{{Portishead}}'s "Machine Gun" (albeit sped up), to the point that a bit of publicized legal drama ensued after Portishead's Geoff Barrow insisted the song used an unauthorized sample of theirs. While the details of what unfolded afterward were a bit muddy, the consensus seems to be that "Belong to the World" was made using the "Machine Gun" drums, after which the Weeknd's management sent a letter requesting clearance of the sample, and following Barrow's refusal, the drums were recreated.
** Some have accused "Secrets" off of ''Starboy'' as being a ripoff of "Talking in Your Sleep" by The Romantics. It doesn't help that he uses the same lyrics in the chorus as the original does.
** "Blinding Lights" is basically Rod Stewart's "Young Turks" with the drum track from A-ha's "Take On Me".