Canadian singer "The Weeknd" supports Gaza with $2.5 million

SBISIALI NEWS The United Nations World Food Program said that the famous Canadian singer and songwriter Abel Tesfaye, known as “The Weeknd,” will provide four million meals to the program to help people in Gaza.

Tesfaye, a UN Goodwill Ambassador, directed $2.5 million from his Humanitarian Fund (XO) to the World Food Programme's humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

Four million emergency meals He said in a statement that the donation is equivalent to four million emergency meals, which will fund 820 metric tons of food parcels that can feed more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks.

The World Food Program did not clarify when this aid could reach Gaza.

Corinne Fleisher, Regional Director of the World Food Programme, thanked the artist Tesfaye for his contribution, saying: “We hope that others will follow Appel’s example and support our efforts.”

The World Food Program said that more than a million Palestinians in Gaza are “on the brink of famine,” and added that since the beginning of the conflict on October 7, “an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe” has erupted.

He has $5 million in his fund Tesfaye has been a Goodwill Ambassador since 2021, and his XO Humanitarian Fund, which was established in partnership with the World Food Program in the United States of America in 2022, has raised $5 million so far.

The first $2.5 million from the fund was allocated to support emergency food aid for women and children in Ethiopia, and the rest will be allocated to the response to Gaza, according to the statement.

Who is The Weeknd? It is noteworthy that in 2010, Bill Tesfaye uploaded videos of his songs on YouTube under the name The Weeknd, and later released three mixtapes throughout 2011: “Balloon House,” “Thursday,” and “Echoes of Silence,” and he was harshly criticized.

The Weeknd has received numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards , 19 Billboard Music Awards, 15 Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, two MTV Music Video Awards, and an Academy Award nomination.

The Weeknd grew up with his family in Canada, a family of Ethiopian origins that immigrated in the 1980s. He lived a difficult childhood, as his mother worked in more than one job (nurse, cleaner...) while his father left and abandoned the family when he was six years old, and it was no different. His adolescence was very similar to his childhood, as it witnessed him dropping out of school and entering the world of organized crime by selling contraband and drugs and joining gangs, but this soon led to his entry into the field of music.