This year saw The Weeknd's first ever performance on The X Factor when they featured on the season’s finale . Prior to the performance there was speculation that The Weeknd could be joining finalists 5 After Midnight on stage but it didn’t push through. Instead, The Weeknd performed his song “I Can't Feel My Face" for the live television audience.
The performance was received extremely well by The X Factor fans and was trending on Twitter during and after the popular Canadian singer had left the stage.
Check out The Weeknd’s “I Can't Feel My Face" music video:
The X Factor is one of the longest running reality TV competitions to date. It has helped launched the career of many hopefuls in the UK, including last year's winner, Louisa Johnson. Albeit artists for mainstream pop fans, it has begun giving cutting-edge contemporary musicians such as The Weeknd a platform to showcase their talents.
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd, is a Canadian songwriter, singer, and producer. He started his career by uploading several of his songs to YouTube under the alias, The Weeknd. After thousands of views and positive feedback from his followers, The Weeknd released three, nine-track mixtapes namely House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence.
In 2013, he released his first ever studio album Kiss Land, which included singles "Live For" and "Kiss Land". His second album, Beauty Behind the Madness became his first album to reach the U.S. Billboard 200. In September 2016, he released an album called Starboy, which gained critical acclaim and is expected to be featured in many of the Best Albums of 2016 lists.
To date, The Weeknd has 2 Grammy Awards, 9 Juno Awards, 8 Billboard Music Awards, and has been nominated for an Academy Award. Although, his recent performance at The X Factor was his first due to the singer not being a huge fan of reality television shows.
The X Factor's popularity has transcended from a reality TV singing contest to a myriad of other franchises and products. One of its most popular spin-offs is The Fan Factor, which is an online show first launched in 2014 and hosted by The X Factor comedy duo, Wyatt and Luke. Most recently, X Factor also launched a series of games, including The X Factor Games in order to advertise itself to a bigger demographic. New games and products are reported to be on their way in time for the next edition of the show.
