Grammy Award-winning musician The Weeknd has received the Key to the City ahead of his highly anticipated concerts at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow presented the honour to the Scarborough-born musician, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, at the downtown stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the mayor said The Blinding Lights singer represents the best of Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Scarborough to the global stage, he has reshaped modern music while using his platform to support health and humanitarian causes at home and around the world. I am proud to honour one of our city\u2019s greatest artists with a Key to the City to celebrate his contributions to music, society and our culture,\u201d Chow said.<\/p>\n
The Weeknd is in Toronto for his \u201cAfter Hours til Dawn\u201d tour in support of his album trilogy \u201cAfter Hours,\u201d \u201cDawn FM\u201d and \u201cHurry Up Tomorrow,\u201d which was released earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The singer, who has 27 songs with over 1 billion streams each on Spotify, is set to perform in Toronto on Sunday and Monday and will return for additional shows on Aug. 7 and 8.<\/p>\n
The Often singer said he was honoured to receive the Key to the City.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to be home,\u201d he said. \u201cToronto is where I found my voice, and I\u2019m committed to helping the next generation find theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to his achievements in the music industry, the city said the awarding of the Key to the City is also in recognition of The Weeknd\u2019s contributions to the community, including raising and donating $500,000 to the Scarborough Health Network during the pandemic and co-founding HXOUSE, a not-for-profit innovation hub that empowers emerging creatives and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
The city added that The Weeknd, in honour of the recognition, is investing in the Boys & Girls Club of West Scarborough and his former high school, Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute, to create spaces for youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a self-made global ambassador for Toronto\u2019s music and arts communities, The Weeknd serves as a role model for aspiring artists everywhere. His recognition today celebrates both his international impact and his dedication to Toronto\u2019s cultural identity,\u201d the city said.<\/p>\n
The city has also proclaimed July 26 and 27 as \u201cThe Weeknd Weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grammy Award-winning musician The Weeknd has received the Key to the City ahead of his highly anticipated concerts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-26818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-apple-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}