How To Sing Like The Weekend (Explained)
The Weekend is a Canadian born singer and songwriter who started his musical career by anonymously posting mixtapes on Youtube before becoming an international success.
The Weekend has achieved international musical acclaim in less than a decade and doesn’t look like he’s stopping anytime soon.
As a lyric tenor who can reach high up in the vocal range, The Weekend brings his own unique style and technique to the table.
Being able to sing like The Weekend not only requires a good voice but time and dedication.
This article will discuss steps to sing like the Weekend, his voice type and vocal range and what is unique about his voice.
What Are The Steps Needed To Sing Like The Weekend?
1. Build Up Your Voice
Whether you plan to be a local church singer or an international success, an important part of being able to sing is to train your voice.
Build it to a powerful and flexible pitch within your vocal range.
2. Expand Your Vocal Range
The Weekend is known for being able to sing high notes which are a little bit over his voice range.
If you can’t do that naturally, then vocal training will be able to help you achieve that.
3. Learn The Weekend’s Vocal Technique
Develop the ability to raise the back of the tongue up and forward as this is an important factor to singing like The Weekend.
There are also other minute details which you would have to learn and perfect before you can sound like him.
4. Watch His Performances
The Weekend often finetunes his melodies during his live performances, giving the songs a similar but different outlook.
Regularly watching his performances will definitely help you in assimilating more of his vocal style and technique.
5. Practice Constantly
As you aim to sing like The Weekend, constant practice is necessary for you to perfect his voice style and technique.
Listen to his songs and sing them out verse by verse. Do it over and over till you are good at it.
What Voice Type Does The Weekend Have?
The Weekend has been classified as a light lyric tenor.
The Weekend’s voice is innately flexible, enabling him to sing low notes in the vocal range with ease, although in the past they used to come out a little rough.
In the early days of his career, he suffered from stage fright however with time he is able to sing these notes without major pitch inconsistencies.
He is also dedicated to voice training and with time he has grown to become a decent vocalist.
The Weekends’ music is majorly influenced by late pop star Michael Jackson and they share a natural tone.
What Makes The Weekend’s Voice So Unique?
The Weekend has quite the light and thin voice and apart from Michael Jackson, his voice is also partly influenced by Eastern music which he was exposed to growing up.
This itself has caused his voice to take on a ‘chameleon tone’ which itself is unique.
The Weekend has an ability to maintain a brilliant, and consistent tone throughout his vocal range and this is a major characteristic that distinguishes him and makes his voice so striking.
He also has the ability to sing several notes in one syllable known as ‘melismas’.
This requires a lot of precision and this has infused his music with a degree of distinctiveness.
Here is an article I wrote on how to sing like Chester Bennington
Can The Weekend Actually Sing?
The Weekend is definitely on my list of favorite pop singers with his dark lyrics and thin voice which can go really high when he wants to.
‘Earned It’ was one of my best-loved songs for weeks as I couldn’t get enough of it.
My favorite part about The Weekend is the fact that he is growing into his voice.
No one can deny that he has decent even if not good vocals and although he had stage fright issues in the past, he has clearly worked on that and is more confident on stage.
His stage performances are also more lively than his recordings and we see him improvising with his tone and melodies.
This altogether gives us a clean sound which we have learnt to appreciate and I believe with time, The Weekend would definitely perfect his skill.
How Did The Weekend Start Singing?
The Weekend born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born 1990 and was raised in Toronto, Canada.
His musical career started online when he released his music anonymously on YouTube in 2010.
The songs got a lot of attention from top singers and musical reviews and this snowballed into him releasing a mixtape and going on a local tour which included Drake.
He hit the major limelight with his song ‘Starboy’ which was on his third album of the same name. It gave him major media interest and attention and has remained so since then.
The Weekend has had quite the success story with his songs topping music charts all over the world.
He has won several awards including 3 Grammys for ‘Best Urban Contemporary Album’ & ‘Best RnB Performance’ in 2016. His ‘Starboy’ album also won another ‘Best Urban Contemporary Album’ in 2018 and he continues to rack it up
Also check out this article I wrote on how to sing like Eric Clapton
What Is The Weekend’s Vocal Range?
The Weekends’ voice range has been placed at F2 – E5 – G#5. His lower range or ‘chest voice’, ranges from the low bass F to a tenor G sharp.
However, he is also capable of singing higher in what is known as his ‘head voice’.
He has the ability to stretch beyond his natural range and sing high, resonant and clear notes even to the fifth octave which is more often observed in sopranos and countertenors.
What Is The Highest Note The Weekend Can Sing?
The Weekend has so far gone above the C5 to the G5 range which we see in his performances of ‘False Alarm’ and ‘Can’t Feel My Face’.
The fact that he can stretch his voice above the natural limit to produce high notes is a distinctive plus for him.
It has also helped in classifying him as a lyric tenor as opposed to a baritone who can’t reach that high.
The Weekend has a stronger head voice but needs to develop his lower register as it can sometimes sound uncomfortable as seen in songs such as ‘The Hills’ and ‘Coming Down’.
What Are Some Classic The Weekend Songs To Practice?
- Blinding Light: Released in 2020, ‘Blinding Lights’ was not an instant success on the charts. In 9 weeks, it became No 1 on the UK charts and was also his first UK chart topper.
- Starboy: Starboy which bears the same name with his third album is seen as the ‘waymaker’ for The Weekend. It propelled him into limelight and also switched up his song style. It ranks among his best selling songs.
- Can’t Feel My Face: A collaboration with pop hitmaker Max Martin, ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ gives us a Michael Jackson style performance and became The Weekend’s first Us Number 1 in 2015.
Conclusion
The Weekend is an artist that has accomplished so much within a short period.
He has continued to build on his first song successes and has not disappointed us one bit. Originally shy of the limelight, The Weekend has built up his confidence and is giving hit performances back to back.
His uniqueness is the ability to expand his vocal range and belt out some really high notes which helps to classify him as a lyric tenor.
We cannot deny that The Weekend has made quite the contribution to the music industry within a short timeframe and many young artists would like to sing like him.
