Miguel Suspended Himself from the Ceiling in ‘Boundary-Pushing’ Performance

On Instagram, Miguel showed off the toll that his latest performance took on his body. This time it included marks on his back where he was suspended from the ceiling in a striking, shocking artistic display.

Videos by American Songwriter

It all went down on August 25 in Los Angeles, at an event called Viscera, where the R&B singer previewed music from his upcoming project. Part of that experience, Vibe reports, included having large hooks pierce his back and being raised from the ground via wires attached to the ceiling.

He continued to sing for nearly five minutes all the while before being lowered back down.

Ahead of the performance, attendees received a warning that the show would feature “boundary-pushing artistry including body manipulation, skin piercing, and water-based haze,” according to Vibe.

A few days after the show, Miguel showed off the aftermath via a shirtless selfie on Instagram. “What is your relationship to pain?” he wrote in the caption. “What is your relationship to change?”

Miguel has spent a portion of 2023 thinking about the past. His 2010 song “Sure Thing” saw a resurgence, thanks in part to a rush of new interest from its use in millions of TikTok videos. That bump led to a real chart push. It stayed on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over 75 weeks and even reached No. 11 on the Hot 100.

[RELATED: Miguel’s “Sure Thing” Won’t Go Away Easily, Sets New Chart Record]

Naturally, the singer dropped an official sped-up version to meet the TikTok demand and even released a handful of remixes. But while a nearly 15-year-old song made waves, Miguel was looking ahead into the future — and up high into the rafters.

Photo by Leon Bennett/FilmMagic

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