Features of a Biography-2268385

STRAP STATEMENT

PLAN 2

Based on the STRAP statement plan your biographical writing:

Choose a personality you know of who have overcome adversity in their life.

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye

Conduct a research on this personality looking for details on:

The challenges Tesfaye faced were drug addiction and school dropout at a young age.

He was in 11 grades when he dropped out and faced addiction-related challenges.

The major cause of the challenge is the immigration background of his family and his drug addiction.

These challenging situations harmed his academic life.

He moved forward with his career as a singer on YouTube which finally brought him fame.

I have learned that we must try our best to meet our goals even in adverse situations.   

Write the first draft of the biography. Get your parents or siblings to give you feedback on your writing.

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is a renowned singer and songwriter in Canada who is well known as “The Weeknd”. He was born into a family with an immigration background as his mother and grandmother immigrated to Canada from Ethiopia (Bauer 2024). He struggled as a teen as he left home and quit school in his 11 grade. These challenging situations harmed his academic life. Tesfaye moved forward in his life through his urge to create music and songs and started to upload his music to YouTube using the pseudonym “The Weeknd” (Rambarran 2021). His soulful voice, songs written on drugs, and others gradually brought him success and fame within a short period. The adversity in his life and the ways that he used to overcome challenges and build a career are exemplary phenomena and inspirations to the young generation.

Complete a final copy of the biography based on the feedback provided. Word limit 600-800 words.

Based on the provided feedback such as lack of information about the person, and the main cause of his challenge, I have revised the draft to make the final copy.

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is also well known as “The Weeknd”, a talented singer and songwriter in Canada. He was born on 16th February 1990 in Ontario, Canada to a working-class family with an immigration background (Bauer 2024). His grandmother and mother immigrated in the 1980s from Ethiopia to Canada. His first language was Amharic. His family background and language created a difference between him and his other classmates in school. He quit school and left home when he was in 11 grades. He struggled with drug addiction while facing other associated issues such as unbridled partying. His childhood was challenging due to his family’s immigration background background. He does not have a father figure at his home. At the age of 17 years, he moved out from his mother’s house and settled into a one-bedroom apartment with one of his friends (ABCnews 2016). They used to party and steal food from supermarkets. They spend a lot of money on drugs and alcohol. He got addicted to drugs at a young age and dropped out his school. However, he was determined to achieve fame and be renowned and turned to music and songs as a way to express his feelings while coping with his struggles.

Drug addiction caused harm to his academic career. However, he moved forward with a positive mentality and started working at American Apparel while writing songs simultaneously about drug use, alienation, and casual sex. During the period of struggle, Tesfaye had nothing but music. He used drugs even when creating music and writing songs. In 2010 Tesfaye started to upload his music to YouTube using his pseudonym “The Weeknd”. His soulful voice and singing in a different style caught the attention of the audience in a short period and he successfully gained a large number of devoted followers across the world. Tesfaye became well-known for his explicit songs (Pérez-Rufí and Castro-Higueras 2021). These songs were about drugs and the majority of his songs were autobiographical. He becomes popular due to the soaring falsetto as well as its singular tremolo (Bauer 2024). During this time hecrossed paths with producer and musician Jeremy Rose and began to work together to write songs and create music. The collaboration between Jeremy Rose and Tesfaye yielded appreciable and atmospheric songs such as “Loft Music”, “The Morning” and “What You Need”. The lyrics of these three songs were partly rapped and sung by them. Their popularity developed exponentially after the posts on the blog of Canadian rapper Drake. The popularity that he gained through his songs and music is the result of his high level of determination, compassion, and struggle for his dream to achieve success and go home with a reputation (Daryanto, Setyaji and Prastikawati 2022). He was determined not to go home empty-handed. His determination and courage helped him during his struggle and fuelled his motivation to achieve success and earn popularity across the entire world. From his struggle, we come to know that there is a way out of any type of struggle and challenge. People must be determined to their urge to obtain success and try their best until they achieve their goals and aims in life.

References

ABCnews (2016). The Weeknd Opens Up About His ‘Dark’ Past. Available from: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/weeknd-opens-dark-past/story?id=43987671 [Accessed 29January 2024]

Bauer. P. (2024). The Weeknd. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/the-Weeknd [Accessed 29January 2024]

Daryanto, A.P., Setyaji, A. and Prastikawati, E.F., 2022. Interpersonal Meaning Analysis of The Weeknd Song Lyrics in After Hours’ Album. International Journal of Research in Education (IJRE), 2(2), pp.123-131.

Pérez-Rufí, J.P. and Castro-Higueras, A., 2021. Blinding Lights (The Weeknd): formal techniques and branded content in MTV’s Video of the Year Blinding Lights (The Weeknd): pautas formales y contenido de marca en el videoclip del año de MTV. doxa. comunicación, (32), pp.187-205.

Rambarran, S., 2021. Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.