Canadian pop star The Weeknd changed his name on social media to Abel Tesfaye, his birth name.

It’s not clear why Tesfaye, 33, made the change. In an interview with W Magazine this month, he said he’s preparing to reinvent himself as a musician.

In his recent W magazine cover story, the Canadian superstar shared plans to enter the next phase in his musical career. Noting that the move would include him leaving his “The Weeknd” persona behind and moving forth as “Abel Tesfaye.”

“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” he told the magazine. “It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”

Tesfaye said the album he’s working on might be his “last hurrah as The Weeknd.”

“This is something that I have to do,” he said. “As The Weeknd, I’ve said everything I can say.”

Earlier this year Mr Tesfaye was named the most popular artist in the world by Guinness World Records following an analysis of Spotify data.

It said he set two records: the most monthly listeners on Spotify – 111.4m as of 20 March, and the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify.