MUSIC legend Patti Smith collapsed on stage during a performance in Brazil.
The 78-year-old reportedly hit her head after falling inside the Teatro Cultura Artística, Sao Paulo, leaving gig-goers in shock.
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Smith, who had complained of severe migraines before the incident, was removed from the stage in a wheelchair.
A statement from the theatre read: “[She] felt dizzy on stage during today’s performance.
“She is being monitored by top doctors and staff.”
Despite the concern for her welfare, Smith returned to the stage to perform her hit Because the Night.
The theatre described it as “a very memorable moment for everyone present.”
Smith is due to return to the same venue tonight for another performance with the experimental group Soundwalk Collective.
Writing on Instagram, the group said: “Patti says she is tremendously grateful for your patience and forgiveness and she sends her love to all who attended.”
In December 2023, Smith’s gig in Bologna, Italy, was cancelled after she was hospitalised with a ‘sudden illness’.
Smith, from Chicago, is best known for her debut album, Horses, which was released in 1975.
She wrote the track Because the Night with legendary music star Bruce Springsteen, and it reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1978.
Smith has been hailed for her punk poetry and her “street-savvy” music and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
The star won a gong at the 1995 ASCAP Pop Music Awards for Horses and has been nominated for Grammy Awards on four separate occasions.
She won an accolade at the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021 for Horses.
In January 2023, Smith ranked 117 in Rolling Stone’s list of the top 200 greatest singers of all time.
Smith is known for her career in punk rock but told NPR in 2016 that she used to “daydream” about being an opera singer when she was a child.
She said that her parents had nice voices, but she didn’t think she had a “gift.”
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Smith added: “But what I did have, I think, always was – I’ve always, for some reason, been comfortable talking in front of people or performing in front of people.
“And I guess I got a lot of guts, but I never really had that great a voice. I think it’s basically guts.”
Smith’s music has been an inspiration to famous artists such as Michael Stipe, who was part of the legendary band R.E.M.
Stipe told Rolling Stone in 2004 that he had decided to create a band after listening to Horses.