Artists often go to great lengths to entertain their fans during performances, but singer Miguel’s recent onstage antics have left social media users hanging by a thread.
During a special concert Friday to announce his forthcoming album, Viscera, the 37-year-old singer pulled off a shocking feat by levitating himself into the air on hooks attached to his back piercings.
Two assistants worked before he performed his new song “Rope” at Sony Studios in Los Angeles enter the stage Miguel, whose full name is Miguel Jontel Pimentel, with metal rods before being lifted.
In several clips taken by concert-goers, Miguel can be seen hanging above the crowd for about four minutes while singing the lyrics to the song: “I’m not clinging / I’m clinging to the ceiling / A rope around my neck.”
Fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, sparked reactions to the “crazy” stunt on the social platform.
sources told TMZ that the “Quickie” singer worked for months with a team of experts to be able to pull off the breathtaking stunt.
In a separate interview with the Los Angeles Times Earlier this month, Miguel opened up about what the outlet described as an “ancient body modification practice,” which involves sticking large metal hooks in someone’s back to hang them up. The singer called the practice “Exercise in trust.”
“It was a bit like, ‘What’s the most extreme way to go beyond the expected?’ at first,” Miguel said. “How far can I go to show how far I’m willing to go for art and conversation? I couldn’t have known how dedicated I was to the true purpose of this shit until I had hooks in my back.”
He said the experience was “scary” yet “liberating”.
Miguel added: “It has so much to do with pain. What does pain mean?
The Grammy-winning artist whose now-ex-wife is Nazanin Mandi filed for divorce In October 2022, after three years of marriage, he told the outlet that he wrote the song “Rope” during a “time of loss and turmoil” before tying the knot.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that I’ve created from there,” he shared.
Miguel found himself in trouble a decade ago after another high profile incident on stage embarrassed his fans.
Throughout 2013 Billboard Music AwardsDuring his performance, he tried to jump off the stage, but missed his target and ended up landing on some spectators, causing outrage among the concert-goers.
Miguel’s “Viscera” marks his first full-length album since 2017.