Don't Do That

Meat Loaf Hospitalized After Concert Collapse

At first fans thought it was part of his act, but the performer, plagued by ill health of late, was down for real. He was rushed to hospital, where he remains in an unknown condition.

Soft-rock legend Meat Loaf is in hospital after collapsing on stage during a concert in Edmonton, Canada, Thursday night.

The singer dramatically fell to the floor during a rendition of his signature hit “I Would Do Anything For Love,” in what many fans in the 2,000 strong crowd initially thought was part of a stage act.

Video footage posted on social media from Edmonton shows the musician slumping and falling to the stage floor midway through the song.

In dramatic scenes, his bandmates rushed to the stricken singer’s side before ambulances arrived at the Northern Jubilee Auditorium.

Edmonton police confirmed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that its officers were called to respond to a medical emergency at the venue.

Local reports said the venue was cleared shortly after Meat Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday, collapsed at about 9.37 p.m. and ambulances and fire trucks were seen outside the venue.

One concertgoer, Lindsay Sundmark, told the Edmonton Journal “he was performing and all of a sudden, in the middle of it, he collapsed right on stage.”

“We weren’t sure at first whether it was part of the act or it was something for real,” Sundmark said.

There have been no updates yet from Meatloaf’s management team and his condition remains unknown.

However the singer had been struggling with health issues in the days preceeding last night’s gig.

Multiple gigs had already been canceled.

One fan posted a query on Meat Loaf’s Facebook page this week saying that his voice was hard to hear, to which Meat replied: “It was very bad sound! It has been fixed now! I can’t control what you hear out front, But if you would like to come into my dressing room when I am warming up, stand three feet away, I can still make your ears bleed!!

"Nothing's happened to my voice except it's 40 years older... I still do 'Bat' in the same key it was recorded, I am the only male rock singer that can hit four high C's full voice at the end of 'Bat' ... Do you have any idea how much harder these songs are to sing than your average rock band? Almost every song covers three octaves or three and a half octaves like 'Bat'."

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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