Drake left fans screaming with joy when he made a surprise appearance during The Weeknd’s concert in London on Wednesday night.
The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, was performing at the city’s O2 Arena to a sold-out crowd when he introduced fellow Canadian, and frequent collaborator, Drake on stage to sing with him.
Together the pair belted out a medley of Drake’s tracks Fake Love, Energy and Jumpman. Fans caught everything on their cameras, with the Hotline Bling singer giving his pal a big hug at one point.
“Abel calls Drake the biggest artist in the world and Drake recalls hearing ‘House of Balloons’ for the 1st time,” one Instagram user captioned a video of the two stars embracing, before which Drake spoke about discovering The Weeknd’s 2011 mixtape House of Balloons.
Drake initially posted tracks by the singer on his blog, which led to numerous collaborations between the pair. The term OVOXO was quickly established to promote the two artists as a brand, taking into account Drake’s record label OVO (October’s Very Own) Sound and The Weeknd’s Twitter handle @theweekendxo.
It was rumoured their friendship turned bitter when The Weeknd signed with Republic Records in 2012 despite Drake hinting at snapping him up under his own company, which he founded the same year alongside Oliver El-Khatib and producer Noah ‘40’ Shebib.
Seemingly irked by the move, Drake posted on Twitter, “You won’t get away with just a thank you…you owe me a favor.”
However the 30-year-old shot down rumours of a feud between them during an interview in 2013 when quizzed if OVOXO was over.
“People make their own decisions, man. He went on to do something that he felt was a great decision, and I always like more power to him,” he said on the Keep It Thoro show.
The pair have teamed up various times since and even toured together in 2013. Audience members re-used OVOXO in their social media postings on Wednesday night to mark the reunion.
