Pink Scales Building for Gravity-Defying AMAs Performance — and Fans Go Nuts

After opening the show with Kelly Clarkson, the pop star returned to the stage for a solo performance

By
Nicole Sands
Nicole Sands
Nicole Sands is a former editorial assistant at PEOPLE. She left PEOPLE in 2019.
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Published on November 19, 2017 10:10PM EST
2017 American Music Awards - Show
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty

Though Pink confessed to panicking as she dangled from a towering hotel in Downtown Los Angeles over the weekend in preparation for her 2017 American Music Award performance, the singer scaled the building like a pro on Sunday night.

The pop queen performed expertly executed choreography flanked by six dancers as she sang her recent hit “Beautiful Trauma,” suspended from the J.W. Marriott in Downtown Los Angeles. The awesomely disorienting routine most definitely has to be seen to be believed—and even then, we’re not totally sure how she managed to do it.

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ABC

Fans inside the hotel were treated to the once-in-a-lifetime view of their idol performing outside—hundreds of feet up!

“I’m just afraid I’m going to get up there and be like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,'” the “What About Us” singer said in a video posted to her Instagram before the show. “I don’t care about heights, I just care about being able to actually breathe up there.”

“This was a fine idea,” she added. “I feel the fear this time. “This is nothing you can prepare for.”

Earlier in the night, the singer took the stage alongside Kelly Clarkson to open the show.

“I’m a huge fan of Pink,” Clarkson told EW editor-in-chief Henry Goldblatt at the magazine’s A-List event in New York City in November. “I haven’t had the chance yet to work with her. I think if you project it enough, it might happen, right?”

Ahead of the show, Clarkson also took to Twitter to boast about Pink’s amazing soul and her excitement about their performance. “If anyone was wondering what @Pink is like in person, she’s the greatest human ever and I love her even more now after meeting/singing with her at #AMA’s rehearsal ….can’t wait for y’all to see our silk routine tomorrow #picturemehangin,” she Tweeted on Saturday.

RELATED VIDEO: Pink and Kelly Clarkson to Perform Together for The First Time at the 2017 American Music Awards

Pink first performed at the awards show in 2001 with her hit “Most Girls,” and returned again in 2003 and 2008. But it was her 2012 appearance that made headlines for her unforgettable acrobatics while performing her hit “Try.”