A smooth criminal, he moonwalks, with a black fedora on his head he performs the track ‘Dangerous’ for his adoring fans. Sophomore Divor Romero has a love for performing—his specialty is being a Michael Jackson impersonator.
Romero first began performing as Michael Jackson after learning how to moonwalk in 2021, two years later he started listening to his music and only then did he begin to become a fan, now calling him his inspiration.
“He means everything to me, he is the world to me, he’s a reason why I’m here, he’s one of the reasons why I do all this,” Romero said. “I think about him every day. There isn’t a day where I don’t talk about him, he became a very important part of my life, when I [started] hearing about him and investigated more about him, I feel like I identified.”
Romero identifies with him because of his unusual childhood, growing up Jackson did not celebrate birthdays or holidays and dedicated all his time to rehearsing because of his father, although Romero has had a relatively normal childhood, he understands what it feels like to want to stay young.
“He couldn’t have a normal childhood and then when he grew up, that’s when he became free and the reason why I identified was [because] he was just as similar as I am,” Romero said. “He was just a kid, like me, I feel I’m still a kid. I feel like I haven’t grown up yet. I will grow up, but not now. For now, I’m a kid, that’s it.”
Romero began performing at the age of six and has more recently been participating in the choir for over three years, he describes the feeling of performing as freeing.
“I feel outside the world, whatever I perform, I feel energy, I feel joy, I feel ready, I feel confident,” Romero said. “It feels great, every time I do it, I just like it. It’s something I could do all day and I wouldn’t be tired.”
Before performances, Romero has to calm his nerves, warm up and finalize any details. Recently Romero has performed at school events including homecoming and coffeehouse, both performances were met with overwhelming support from his friends and family.
“I think they love it, they don’t get tired of seeing me, I do it for me and for them and they just enjoy it,” Romero said. “I went to coffeehouse, I had to perform because I auditioned for it and I luckily made it. It was really good and homecoming—well I mean, sorry to say this, but I feel like I just ate that night. I was the life of a party and it was all on me with that dance.”
During homecoming, Romero waited the whole night to do his routine, after performing he was posted on an unsanctioned McNeil Instagram account, drawing a lot of attention on him and his performance.
“I wasn’t expecting to get that impact, I wasn’t expecting to be on ‘McNeil Confessions,’” Romero said. “I mean not in a bad way of course, I didn’t get in trouble or anything. People loved it, I loved it and it was great, it was amazing.”
For the future Romero hopes to improve his singing and dancing, impersonate Micheal Jackson more and make music himself.
“I see myself as a singer when I grow up, I wanna do it cause I love music in general, that’s my way of escaping the world, that’s my way of relaxing,” Romero said. “I want to form my dreams. I want to be a singer just like MJ.”
