When the maneuver goes right, it’s an intimate duet between a man and a camera robot, recorded by the robot’s camera and projected live for thousands of screaming fans. Enrique Iglesias had done the routine before, taking hold of a drone while on stage to sing into its mechanical eyeball, but at a show in Tijuana, Mexico, this past Saturday, his hand slipped up and caught the drone’s blades, instead. While Iglesias played on for 30 more minutes, today he is undergoing reconstructive surgery for his hand.
The drone appears to be a DJI Inspire, a premium quadcopter whose camera hangs below the body on a mechanical eyestalk. At just over six pounds, the Inspire counts as a medium drone under Mexico’s recently published guidelines for remotely piloted aircraft.
In a video of the incident, you can see Iglesias grab the drone by its gimbal and sing into the camera, which he holds onto with both hands. Then he moves one hand to adjust the angle of the camera, and his fingers get caught in the blades. A well-timed confetti cannon blocks the cell phone camera filming the injury, but we can still see Iglesias toss the drone aside.
